Gasoline Prices At Their Lowest July Level In 12 Years -- July 21, 2016

Updates

July 22, 2016: Over at Twitter, John Kemp has put together a number of slides, a number of data points, and a number of tweets to make a case that mild weather in February and March (2016) "caused the market to over-estimate US gasoline consumption growth in 2016." It's hard to say, of course, but the data certainly explains half the story: why there is such a glut of gasoline right now. However, the other half of the story is not explained. There was a huge jump in US vehicular traffic in February / March (compared to previous year) but that growth dropped off significantly in April / May. Or perhaps no explanation is needed. Perhaps John Kemp's argument that mild weather in February/March was an anomaly that "global warmists" bought into and refiners followed that line of thinking.
 

Original Post

 

On July 14, 2016, I wrote:

Gasoline selling for $1.68/gallon at QT service stations west of DFW. I think these prices will go down at least another 20 cents based on prices elsewhere in the immediate area ($2.09/gallon). 

Now, today, from AAA and USA Today:

Even with the peak travel season in full swing, gasoline prices are stuck in reverse.

Gas prices have plunged to their lowest July level in 12 years, according to AAA, even as Americans are racking up more miles.

In fact, gas prices have dropped in 39 out of the last 40 days, lopping 20 cents a gallon off in total during that span, according to AAA.

"Gas is getting cheaper as we're moving into the busiest part of summer travel," AAA spokesman Michael Green said. "Those are real savings that add up...And we've seen that cheaper gas prices are motivating people to drive more and to take long trips this summer."

Fathomless ignorance:

"We can't just drill our way to lower gas prices." -- March 1, 2012