Gas price in U.S. hits a lowest level in more than 40 years. Some gas stations in Michigan even sold the price at 47 cents a gallon, the same level as it was in 1973.
NBC News reported the oil price as a flashback to 1973 in Michigan. On Sunday, some gas stations at the Beacon and Bridge Market in Houghton Lake slashed prices to under $1. The price war between gas stations made the price as low as 47 cents, and multitude of cars come to the gas station to fill their tank.
"It was ridiculous. There were so many cars the police were called in to direct traffic," said a clerk named Ronda at the popular stop on Lake City Road to NBC News. On Monday, the gas price were back to normal at $1.43 per gallon, still a very low price.
According to Monday report from gasbuddy.com, gas prices kept falling or stay at the lowest level in every state all across U.S. However, South Dakota, Hawaii, Nevada and Iowa have not yet enjoyed the low gas price yet. GasBuddy.com is a group of local websites which enables visitors to post and view recent retail gasoline prices all across United States.
Average gas price on Monday all across the United States was at $1.889 — down 17.2 cents from last year's average of $2.061-per-gallon.
Even in some states near major oil refineries, according to USA Today, prices fall even further than the national average. The average statewide price of gas is $1.65 per gallon in Alabama and Arkansas, slightly below the $1.67 price in Texas, but above the $1.56 cost in Oklahoma.
However, according to CNN Money, the Sunday's Michigan price war appears to be more of a publicity stunt than part of the broader trend of falling prices. Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service confirmed CNN opinion, said, "It's a quirk, a gimmick, a lark -- and not anything related to the oil price collapse."
United States started to have its higher price of gas in 1973, when OPEC announced a trade embargo which lasted for 5 months and ended in May 1974. OPEC was established in 1960, initiated by Arab countries, as a group of oil producing countries to resist pressure from six big western oil companies to reduce oil price. OPEC as the cartel oil oil producing countries and its 13 members have the control of about 40% of global oil production and around 70% of global oil reserves.
When U.S. began its shale oil revolution with Energy Policy Act of 2005 under George W. Bush administration, the global energy power started to shift. American oil output soared, and OPEC found itself no longer in full control of global oil price. In order to drive American out of the competition, Saudi Arabia increased its production and flood the market, but the strategy backfired and creating a global glut.
Plunge of oil price have given benefit to retail gas price, as what happened last Sunday in Michigan. As oil prices still continued to fall and even reached the lowest level in more than a decade.
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