Fuel prices plunge at end of season

Additives play roll in lower cost

Everything must go.

Perhaps it’s not that extreme, but it turns out even gasoline isn’t immune to the spectacle of end-of-the-season clearance sales, which is why pump prices have been falling in recent weeks. The average price for regular gas dropped 4.4 cents per gallon nationwide as of Feb. 20, according to the Energy Information Administration. The East Coast saw the biggest decrease, with prices lower by 6.6 cents per gallon.

You may have thought the gasoline pumped in the winter is the same as that of the summer months. Hardly. Sensible motorists wouldn’t be caught driving last season’s gas, which actually has to do with gasoline additives rather than fickle fuel trends.

In the winter, ethanol is added to the gas to decrease the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, which increases in the colder months, said Robert Sinclair, AAA Automobile Club of New York spokesman. In the summer, about a third of the markets are required as part of the 1995 Clean Air Act to use reformulated gas, a cleaner more expensive formula. Orange County is one of 11 New York counties that must use RFG. Dutchess County has the option.

Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY)