The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Riverside County dropped Saturday for the eighth consecutive day, decreasing 4.3 cents to $5.869.
The average price has dropped 28.2 cents over the past eight days, including 6.3 cents Friday, its largest decrease since Oct. 20, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.
The decreasing prices follow a run of 22 increases in 24 days totaling 86.6 cents.
The average price is 27.6 cents less than one week ago and 47.8 cents lower than one year ago, but 53.9 cents more than one month ago. It has dropped 50.4 cents since rising to a record $6.373 on Oct. 5, 2022.
“It takes time, but SoCal will drop >$1/gal by the holidays,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, which provides real-time gas price information from more than 150,000 stations, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, Thursday.
The decreasing prices stem from Gov. Gavin Newsom sending a letter to the California Air Resources Board on Sept. 28 directing it to allow refineries to begin making and distributing winter-blend gasoline, which is cheaper to produce.
Stations normally cannot start selling winter blend gas until Nov. 1.
The national average price dropped for the ninth consecutive day and 17th time in 19 days, decreasing 2.4 cents to $3.722. It has dropped 15.9 cents over the past 19 days, including 2.2 cents Friday.
The national average price is 10.1 cents less than one week ago, 8.1 cents lower than one month ago and 16.9 cents less than one year ago. It has dropped $1.294 since rising to a record $5.016 on June 14, 2022.
The run of decreases follows an 11-day streak of increases totaling 7.8 cents.