Gas prices have been on the decline, but it probably won’t last much longer.
Oil prices have fallen below $33 a barrel and they’re still going down, translating into lower gas prices in much of the U.S., USA Today reports. The national average price for a gallon of regular gas currently sits at about $1.97, which Michael Green, a spokesperson for the American Automobile Association, tells Fortune is the lowest average since March 2009.
Ten states currently have average prices under $1.75 per gallon, and we can expect averages to hit below $1.50 in some southeast areas. As for the short-term forecast, Green says that the national average could drop by 10 to 15 cents in January, which he attributes to “the steep decline in the cost of crude oil.”
Some may be looking forward to gas prices reaching just $1 a gallon, which hasn’t happened since before the turn of the century, but that prediction could be overly optimistic. Not only would the price of crude oil have to be cut in half, but Green also says that gas prices fluctuate seasonally, and they generally rise “50 cents per gallon or more in the spring as refineries conduct maintenance.”
