Nationally, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gas on Monday was $3.077, according to AAA. Arizonans are shelling out an average of $3.285 for a gallon of go-juice.
Across the Valley, according to AAA, Scottsdale is seeing the highest prices at $3.449 per gallon. Peoria clocks in at $3.364, Mesa at $3.317, Glendale at $3.314, Phoenix at $3.296 and Prescott at $3.285.
Although current Arizona gas prices are significantly lower than the state’s record high of $5.388 in June 2022, drivers are still paying for some of the most expensive gas in the nation. As of Monday, GasBuddy ranked Arizona as the ninth most expensive. California topped the charts with a whopping $4.633 per gallon, while Oklahoma boasts the cheapest gas at $2.511 per gallon.
“January is a bit of a blah time of year, and gas prices are in the doldrums, as well,” Andrew Gross, AAA national spokesperson, said in a press release. “Barring some unexpected shock to the global oil market, gas prices will likely shuffle up and down a few cents for a while.”
Those pandemic-era $2 gallons are such a distant memory.
Could Phoenix gas prices increase in the spring?
Last March, Arizona gas prices surged to nearly $4 per gallon, and it wasn’t until December that motorists saw a major reprieve.“I’m as confounded by the rise in prices in Phoenix as you may be,” economist Rick Merritt, president of Scottsdale-based economic consulting firm Elliott D. Pollack & Co., told Phoenix New Times in March. “Phoenix has higher prices than most other places. We’ve done some work in looking at prices, but I’m still not sure what’s behind the increase.”
Arizona is at a major disadvantage when it comes to gas prices because the state goes far above and beyond federal requirements when it comes to fuel quality regulations.
Phoenix is one of the most polluted cities in the nation, according to the American Lung Association. In order to combat the effects of pollution and be in compliance with the Clean Air Act, the city mandates the usage of a specific fuel blend called "cleaner burning gasoline," or CBG.
After seeing gas prices rise last year, legislators have shown interest in altering a 1997 Arizona law that requires the usage of CBG. However, in a hearing for the Joint Legislative Ad Hoc Study Committee on Air Quality and Energy, fuels specialist Gordon Schremp said changing the blend of gasoline used in metro Phoenix would do little to bring prices down. Schremp said the greater issue is that the three pipelines that supply fuel to Arizona are at, or near, capacity.
“When you have a pipeline constraint situation, which I believe Arizona currently has, changing the gasoline recipe does not remove your constraint in the pipeline system,” Schremp said in October. He called the “unusually large price spikes” from spring and late summer “a manifestation of this constrained system.”
According to GasBuddy’s Annual Fuel Outlook, U.S. drivers can expect more of the same high prices in 2024.
“Drivers in some West Coast cities could again briefly see prices above $6 per gallon, although most major U.S. cities will see prices peak near $4 per gallon in 2024,” the report said.
The report also projects that Memorial Day will be the priciest 2024 holiday at the pump.
Drivers looking to save a few cents per gallon can use GasBuddy’s search tool to sniff out Phoenix’s cheapest gas.
