--- title: Gas Prices Plummet in Many States, Down 30¢ in One Week description: Not long after gas prices spiked in the Midwest thanks to a refinery outage, prices at the pump are retreating sharply. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2015-08-31T16:00:44.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T10:27:06.000Z' section: Personal Finance word_count: 223 canonical: https://money.com/gas-prices-cheap/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![A gas attendant at a 19 Petroleum gas station pumps gas on August 25, 2015 in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Some places in New Jersey are seeing prices under two dollars as the price of gasoline continues to fall.](https://img.money.com/2015/08/150831_em_gaspricesdrop.jpg?crop=133px%2C295px%2C1967px%2C1106px&quality=85) When oil prices drop, so does the cost of filling up at the gas station. That's how things work normally. But the exact opposite took place in much of the country in August, as gas prices soared in the Midwest—rising 40¢ overnight in some locations—despite oil prices dipping to six-year lows. The blame for the odd, frustrating situation was cast on problems at the Midwest's most important refinery, located in Indiana and run by British Petroleum. Now that the industry has had time to cope with the outage, prices are retreating—in some cases, almost as quickly as they shot up. In [Michigan](http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2015/08/31/gas-prices-drop-cents-past-week/71448484/), the statewide average dropped 32¢ per gallon over the past week. Average prices in [Chicago fell around 30¢](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-chicago-gas-prices-met-20150828-story.html) too, though because the Windy City is so reliant on the Indiana refinery, prices remain roughly 40¢ per gallon higher compared with the rest of the state. Prices have dropped steeply in states such as Wisconsin as well, falling [nearly 35¢](http://www.cbs58.com/story/29921367/gas-prices-drop-345-cents-in-a-week) in Milwaukee over the past week. The price crash in the Midwest has pushed the national average southward, reaching $2.47 as of Monday, according to [AAA](http://fuelgaugereport.aaa.com/todays-gas-prices/), down roughly 12¢ in the last week. Barring more refinery problems or other issues that could derail the current trend, the national average should keep inching toward the $2 mark this fall, as analysts have forecast. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/gas-prices-cheap/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Budgeting", "item": "https://money.com/budgeting/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Gas Prices Plummet in Many States, Down 30¢ in One Week" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/gas-prices-cheap/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/gas-prices-cheap/", "name": "Gas Prices Plummet in Many States, Down 30¢ in One Week", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-08-31T16:00:44.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/gas-prices-cheap/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/gas-prices-cheap/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T10:27:06.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Gas Prices Plummet in Many States, Down 30¢ in One Week", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/08/150831_em_gaspricesdrop.jpg?crop=133px%2C295px%2C1967px%2C1106px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "150831_EM_GasPricesDrop" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-08-31T16:00:44.000Z", "description": "Not long after gas prices spiked in the Midwest thanks to a refinery outage, prices at the pump are retreating sharply.", "abstract": "Not long after gas prices spiked in the Midwest thanks to a refinery outage, prices at the pump are retreating sharply.", "@id": "https://money.com/gas-prices-cheap/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T10:27:06.000Z", "wordCount": 223, "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Personal finance", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_finance" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Budget", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget" ] } ] } ] } ```