Gasoline prices down 8 percent from last Fourth of July
Published 9:31 am Wednesday, July 4, 2012
FRANKLIN—Franklin resident Sheila Wesson looks forward to her annual Fourth of July trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the early summer threat of $5-a-gallon gas wasn’t going to stop her.
Kim Newsome, 39, of Pendleton, N.C., fuels up at the B.P. station on Armory Drive in Franklin. The price for a gallon of regular on Tuesday was $3.14. -- DALE LIESCH/TIDEWATER NEWS
“We were worried about gas prices at that time, but we were going anyway,” Wesson said about the 295-mile trip.
Wesson, who drives a Pontiac Bonneville that gets 22 miles to the gallon, will be among an expected one million people traveling by car in Virginia this holiday.
They will be greeted by falling gas prices, according to American Automobile Association Tidewater spokeswoman Georjean Blumling.
The average price for a gallon of gas in Franklin was $3.14 as of Tuesday, according to gasbuddy.com. The state average was $3.16, down from $3.42 a year ago, or 8 percent.
Blumling said plenty of resources and no storms affecting offshore refineries have contributed to lower prices for crude oil, which controls gas prices.
A 57-year-old retiree, Wesson and her husband, Scott, who will visit their son’s family, are pleased with the news.
“It’s good to see our gas prices going down,” she said.
Sedley resident Candi Turner will visit friends in Virginia Beach.
“Gas prices are always a concern,” said Turner, who works at Paul D. Camp Community College. “There are times I just can’t go if I don’t have extra gas money.”
High gas prices usually cause her to stay closer to home.
