Utah gasoline prices soar to records, but some relief may be coming

Ouch.

The average price for a gallon of gas soared to record heights this week, according to the latest information from AAA Utah.

AAA reported Tuesday that the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in the state hit $2.98 on Monday, an 11-cent leap in the past 30 days and 60 cents higher than this time last year.

"This marks a dramatic change for Utah motorists, who just one month ago were paying some of the lowest prices in the country for gasoline," Rolayne Fairclough, AAA Utah spokeswoman, said in a prepared statement. "The good news is prices throughout the country have started to decline over the past week, so Utahns should start to feel some relief from these record highs soon as well."

The largest increases were in Logan, which saw a 14-cent jump in the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas, to $2.99. Moab, Ogden and Salt Lake City all saw 12-cent increases, to $3.01, $2.94 and $2.93, respectively. The average price for regular unleaded was $3.02 per gallon in St. George, an increase of 9 cents during the past month.

That said, Utahns were still better off than many of their neighbors, according to the AAA Utah report. Idaho's price jumped 13 cents during the last month, to an average per-gallon price of $3.02. Montana saw the biggest increase of all the states in the Intermountain West, 29 cents, to its current average of $3.14. Wyoming's price increased 22 cents to the current average of $3.03.

Nationally, AAA reported that the average price of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline was $3, up 3 cents from last month and 52 cents higher than August 2005.

AAA Utah surveys a limited number of communities across the state in its monthly gas report. Individual service stations sell gas at both higher and lower prices, sometimes even in the same city block. AAA's report focuses on self-serve regular gasoline without regard to its octane level.

Looking ahead, AAA Utah said that there are "signs of improvement on the horizon."

"Recent events that threatened to drive fuel prices up have not had as significant an impact on the energy markets as expected," the travel advocacy group stated.