Regular unleaded was spotted around town at $3.30-something per gallon on Tuesday afternoon, four days after Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill suspending the state’s motor fuel excise tax for 60 days.
This equates to 33.3 cents per gallon on gasoline and 37.3 per gallon on diesel, in terms of the cut that the state government previously was taking.
The average statewide price for regular unleaded peaked last Thursday at $3.78, according to Gas Buddy, while that figure had fallen to $3.62 by Tuesday afternoon. The suspension of the fuel tax allowed Georgia to crack the top-10 list of cheapest gas states. Georgia ranked 10th on Tuesday, according to both Gas Buddy and AAA, while Oklahoma and Kansas topped the list, both in the mid-$3.20s. Conversely, California was in the low $5.80s, according to Gas Buddy and AAA, easily the most expensive state in the union.
Two other states — Washington and Hawaii — also were above $5, although those two states were still 50-something cents below California.
The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is “up 98.9 cents from a month ago and is 84.1 cents per gallon higher than a year ago,” according to Gas Buddy.
“Gas prices continued to rise nationwide over the last week as seasonal factors, combined with ongoing supply concerns tied to the continued disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, pushed both gasoline and diesel prices sharply higher,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “It now appears increasingly likely that the national average price of gasoline will reach the $4-per-gallon mark – potentially as early as this week – for the first time since 2022, while diesel prices are surging to multi-year highs, with some markets nearing record territory. There are few signs of stabilization so far, as global oil prices continue to climb and early indications suggest consumers may begin to pull back in response to the rapid pace of increases.”