Binghamton Gas Prices Expected to Continue Falling Into New Year

An oil industry analyst predicts gasoline prices in the Binghamton region will decline further over the next several weeks.

Patrick DeHaan of GasBuddy on Tuesday had some good news for Southern Tier drivers who earlier this year paid about $5 a gallon for gas.

DeHaan told WNBF News that he expects prices at Binghamton area retailers will continue to drop into the new year.

According to the GasBuddy website, six places in Broome County were selling regular gasoline for $3.499 a gallon Tuesday. The price at one outlet in Owego had fallen to $3.379.

Gasoline being delivered to an Apalachin convenience store. (Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News)

Barring major unforeseen developments, DeHaan predicted prices in the Binghamton region would dip below a low level set in early October. He said motorists might see prices drop to $3.15 or $3.25 a gallon by Christmas "if everything goes well."

New York state's "gas tax holiday" which started in June is scheduled to end on December 31. The state hasn't been collecting about 16 cents a gallon since the measure went into effect just over six months ago.

DeHaan said the ending of that tax break could affect prices in the region. But, he said, if the "tax holiday" ended now, "you wouldn't see prices go up." He said that's because the wholesale price of gas has been declining so much in recent weeks.

But things could change by the end of the month if wholesale prices start trending up again.

DeHaan noted diesel and heating oil prices also have been falling lately.

When he was asked for a New Year's Day price prediction for regular gasoline, DeHaan said "$3.25 to $3.40 a gallon" at most stations in the Binghamton area.

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Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com or (607) 545-2250. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.