Many Springfield gas stations lowered the price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline to below three dollars a gallon for the first time in years Wednesday.
Bill Fleischli of the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association says that's because they're trying to out lower each other in the wake of high supply and low demand.
Fleischli says Springfield's competetiveness frequently leads to gradual price lowering over the span of a few weeks, with a sudden 20-30 cent spike when the market can no longer handle it.
Fleischli doesn't anticipate such a spike before Christmas, but won't rule it out. Oil prices ended the day Wednesday up two percent.
(posted 6:34 p.m. 12/19/2012 by Alex Degman)