Average retail gasoline prices in Chattanooga fell by another dime a gallon last week to $2.32 per gallon, according to GasBuddy's daily survey of 170 gas outlets in Chattanooga.
Gas prices have fallen for four consecutive weeks but remain 15 cents per gallon above the prices at the pump before Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Gulf coast and idled refineries and pipelines in late August.
Chattanooga gas prices averaged 15 cents per gallon below the U.S. average on Sunday and have dropped by an average of 25 cents per gallon from the $2.57 per gallon peak reached in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com. But local fuel prices are still 24.3 cents per gallon higher than a year ago and are 39 cents per gallon higher than two years ago at this time.
Despite the damages over the weekend from Hurricane Nate, GasBuddy.com analysts expect the decline in gas prices to continue this fall.
"Gasoline supply has continued to improve and as temperatures begin to feel more fall like, demand for fuel will continue to decline," Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said in a report today. "Hurricane Nate, a fast moving storm, did little to disrupt the flow of fuel to market while having a larger impact on oil rigs. However, the nation continues to be awash in crude oil, so the storm mattered little to oil prices."
Gas prices today are cheapest in the Chattanooga area in Lookout Valley, where both BP and Exxon stations are selling gas at $2.12 a gallon.