Chattanooga gas prices drop below $3 a gallon
The average price of regular gas fell below $3 a gallon in Chattanooga over the weekend for the first time in nearly eight weeks, lowering fuel prices to nearly $1.28 a gallon less than the peak levels reached a year ago during the July Fourth holiday, according to the online gas pricing service GasBuddy.com.
Average gasoline prices in Chattanooga declined by 1.3 cents per gallon in the past week to an average of $2.99 a gallon among the 170 service stations sampled by GasBuddy.com in the Chattanooga market. Gas prices in Chattanooga averaged 51 cents a gallon less than the U.S. average of $3.50 a gallon, Gasbuddy reported Monday.
“Just ahead of Independence Day, the national average has fallen to its lowest level since late April, with oil prices remaining under considerable pressure due to a cloudy outlook for the global economy,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a report Monday. “I believe we may see prices close out the second half of the year below our expectations, which would be welcome news for motorists, and the possibility exists that the national average this fall could fall under $3 per gallon.”
Although gas prices in Chattanooga are down nearly 30% from a year ago, they are still up by 16 cents a gallon from where they were two years ago and are up $1.06 a gallon from the historic lows reached during the first months of the pandemic in 2020.