LIHUE — Gas prices like this haven’t been seen on Kauai in a long time. “They’re the lowest since the recession started in 2008 and 2009,” said Marie Montgomery, a spokesman for AAA Hawaii. On Monday, regular gas prices ranged
LIHUE — Gas prices like this haven’t been seen on Kauai in a long time.
“They’re the lowest since the recession started in 2008 and 2009,” said Marie Montgomery, a spokesman for AAA Hawaii.
On Monday, regular gas prices ranged from $2.80 to $3.10 per gallon.
Lower oil prices are the main reason for the cheaper gas, Montgomery said. The price of oil was $31 per barrel on Monday, she said.
“So compare that to $100 per barrel we saw a few years ago, that makes a huge difference,” she said.
Pat Powell, who was headed to the North Shore, was filling up his Ford Explorer Monday at the Chevron station on Kuhio Highway in Lihue.
“We’re digging it,” the Lihue resident said. “We filled up for $35 today, it’s usually around $55.”
While Powell said the gas prices wouldn’t have stopped him from driving long distances, that wasn’t always the case.
“In the past, when it used to be $5 a gallon, I used to have to budget and plan where I was going,” he said.
But since the prices have fallen over the years, he’s been a little less careful.
“I still budget, but the prices are better,” he said.
In Lihue, gas prices were around $2.84 for a gallon of regular unleaded. Regular unleaded gas at Costco was about 45 cents cheaper, coming in at $2.39 per gallon.
Gas prices are down throughout Hawaii, Montgomery said.
Statewide, the average price for regular gas on Monday was $2.57 a gallon, down about 47 cents from the previous year, according to an AAA fuel gauge report. In 2015, the average in Hawaii was $3.04, the report said.
The average price for regular gas on Honolulu was $2.38, which was a 65-cent decrease from the average last year. The average price for regular gas on Hilo was $2.54 Monday, 40-cent decrease from last year, Montgomery said.
Those prices are comparable to Los Angeles and San Francisco, whose prices for regular gas came in at $2.39 and $2.47 respectively, she said.
While Montgomery did not know the average of gas on Kauai last year, the dip in prices to this year would not have been that dramatic, she said.
“Kauai is more rural, so there’s a higher cost to transport fuel and hardly any competition,” she said. “So the prices there are more stable.”
Supply and demand, overall usage, and price of oil affect gas prices. While Montgomery was uncertain whether the prices on Kauai will dip more, she said the downward trend is being seen on the Mainland.
“Overall, the gas price forecast for 2016 is pretty low,” she said.
But lower gas prices won’t directly affect airline tickets, said Ann Botticelli, senior vice president of corporate communications for Hawaiian Airlines.
“Oil prices are one part of the cost equation that affects fares, but ultimately at any given time fare prices are a function of supply and demand,” she said. “We provide 17 flights a day to Lihue, with 128 seats per plane. This is why our fare prices have been pretty stable at an average of $70, not including tax and fees, for some quite time.”
Albert Carbonel, buying gas at the Chevron in Lihue on Monday, said gas prices don’t dictate his travel and budget plans.
“We need it, so it doesn’t matter,” he said.
Carbonel, who lives in Omao but works in Lihue, said convenience is a factor in where he gets gas.
It costs him about $25 a week to fill up his truck.
“I live close, and I only drive from work to home, that’s it,” he said.
