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Miami University junior Pete Long-Innes has to travel more than 300 miles on his drive home to Nashville, Tenn. for Thanksgiving.
But Long-Innes said he is looking forward to filling up his Honda Civic gas tank for the trek home for the first time in a long time.
"Gas will probably cost me about $10 to $15 cheaper this year," Long-Innes said. "It'll be nice (going home this time) because of the eased impact on my wallet."
According to cincygasprices.com, Cincinnati-area gas prices dropped nearly $1.12 in the past month. The average price of gas in the Cincinnati area Nov. 9 was a record low for the year of $1.83, compared to Nov. 9, 2007 when average gas prices were $3.20.
Charles Moul, assistant professor of economics at Miami, said the decline in gas prices is a byproduct of the current economic recession. He said because the demand for oil is lower, less gasoline is being used and consequently, prices must be lowered for consumers to be inclined to buy gas.
"The (price) decline has been so sharp because to some extent, more people aren't buying more gas," Moul said. "People are just happier that they aren't paying $4 a gallon."
Long-Innes said when gas prices were higher, he tried to conserve more energy and avoided driving if there was no need to drive somewhere.
"I'm (cognizant) of the fact that it's going to cost me that much more if prices are high," Long-Innes said.
According to Moul, the price of gas for consumers is tied to the price of a barrel of oil, with 42 gallons per barrel. Moul said gas companies take the price of the barrel, divide it by 42 and add approximately 50 cents to determine how they will determine the cost of gas per gallon.
Junior Alex Conover said it takes a little more than $50 to fill up his "gas-guzzler" suburban as opposed to the $100 he had to spend to fill up the 25-gallon tank at the beginning of the summer.
But Conover said he doesn't think the low prices will stay for too much longer.
"It's too good to be true," Conover said.
Assistant economics professor Bill Craighead said when the global economy comes out of recession, oil prices will go up again.
"You can think about this global economic slowdown as a cloud and cheaper oil is the silver lining," Craighead said. "Right now, we have a weak economy with low oil prices. High oil prices will be a side effect of economic growth."
With the holiday season on the horizon, Moul said oil and gas consumption will increase as people start to travel more.
"Obviously oil is a global market and they need people somewhere to start increasing oil consumption, probably through gas consumption," Moul said. "At some point people will start to do it."
Long-Innes agreed that gas prices will go up due to the anticipated traveling season.
"It's just the natural cycle of things," Long-Innes said. "As the demand increases, prices always go up. (Gas companies) lower them back down just to get people's fears calmed a little bit."
Although consumers are not in favor of higher gas prices, Craighead said higher prices will give people an incentive to be more energy efficient.
"In the long run, higher gas prices are what will force people to be more efficient and use less energy," Craighead said. "I'm not sure it's a bad thing that prices will go back up."
