National Gas Price Tops $4

The national average price for regular unleaded gasoline stood at $4.023 this morning after topping $4 per gallon over the weekend, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). Gas prices reached $4 for the first time on Sunday following a spike of $10.75 per barrel of crude oil on Friday.

Light crude oil futures pricing for July opened at $137 a barrel today on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Now that regular unleaded gasoline has broken the $4-per-gallon threshold, many consumers fear that gas prices could top $5 per gallon. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released today shows that 86 percent of respondents believe gas prices will top $5 per gallon sometime this year, CNNMoney.com reported. That is a significant jump from 78 percent in April and just 28 percent in May of last year.

The national average price for diesel fuel was at $4.773 this morning, up more than a penny from Sunday but still down from its peak of $4.792 per gallon on May 30.

In all, 19 states and the District of Columbia had averages above $4 per gallon for regular unleaded. California carried the highest average at $4.445 per gallon, more than 12 cents higher than Connecticut, which had the second highest average at $4.323. Alaska was third highest at $4.298 per gallon.

California’s state average price for diesel fuel was $5.099, which was third behind Hawaii ($5.139) and New York ($5.115). Several California metro areas had regular unleaded prices near $4.50 per gallon, with Salinas hitting $4.506 and the Visalia-Tulare-Porterville area, between Fresno and Bakersfield, tops in the state at $4.517 per gallon.

Residents in the Bridgeport, Conn., area were paying $4.93 per gallon for premium unleaded as of this morning.

Missouri had the lowest state average for regular unleaded at $3.825. Just 11 states had averages below $3.90 per gallon.

The $4.023 national average for regular unleaded is an increase of 8.96 percent from a month ago and a whopping 30 percent higher than a year ago.

In its May Transportation Fuel Index, OPIS reported that American motorists spent more than $41.5 billion on gasoline last month, an increase of almost $4.1 billion from April and nearly $7.1 billion more than a year ago.