Gas Prices Dropping In Levittown Area

Gasoline prices in the Levittown area have dropped below the $3 mark for the first time in more than a year after a several-week decline.

According to Monday morning data from AAA and GasBuddy, most stations in the Levittown area are now selling fuel for less than $3 per gallon. Prices in the area currently range from a low of $2.65 at a station in Bristol Township to a high of $3.10 in Middletown Township.

The local dip follows a larger trend across the five-county Philadelphia region. The average price for a gallon of gas fell 3 cents over the last week to $2.95.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, noted that the national average has now declined for five consecutive weeks.

“All but a handful of states are seeing prices move lower,” De Haan said last week. “Oil prices have remained relatively low even amid the U.S. blockade on Venezuela’s oil exports. With refineries running at seasonally high output and gasoline inventories building, most states have continued to see declines.”

De Haan added that some stations in nearly a dozen states have seen prices dip below $2 per gallon, a trend he expects could persist until prices bottom out in late January or February.

While experts attribute recent fluctuations to refinery capacity, global supply and the ongoing war in Ukraine, new geopolitical variables have emerged.

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump pledged to take an active role in managing Venezuela’s oil production in the the natural-resource-rich nation.

The president vowed to “run” the country and assist American oil companies in obtaining crude from the South American nation.

The president’s comments follow Saturday morning U.S. military actions in Venezuela and the arrests of the country’s president and first lady on a federal criminal indictment.

Although the BBC reports that Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, the nation has significantly scaled back production in recent years.

It remains unclear how the current instability and U.S. involvement will impact global market prices in the long term.

For Levittown residents, the current relief at the pump stands in contrast to the record-high gas prices the area experienced during previous market spikes in 2008 and 2022.

The U.S. Department of Energy provided the following strategies to save fuel:

• Minimize idling your car by turning off your engine when your vehicle is parked for more than 10 seconds. Idling can use a quarter to a half gallon of fuel per hour, depending on engine size and air conditioner use, adding up to three cents of wasted fuel a minute. In the winter, most manufacturers recommend driving off gently after about 30 seconds. The engine will warm up faster being driven, which will allow the heat to turn on sooner, decrease your fuel costs, and reduce emissions.

• Drive sensibly and avoid aggressive driving, such as speeding, rapid acceleration, and hard braking. Aggressive driving  can lower your highway gas mileage by 15 percent to 30 percent and your city mileage by 10 percent to 40 percent.

• Avoid driving at high speeds. Above 50 mph, gas mileage drops rapidly. For every 5 mph above 50 mph, it’s like paying an additional $0.22 per gallon of gasoline. 

• Reduce drag by placing items inside the car or trunk rather than on roof racks, which can decrease your fuel economy by up to 8 percent in city driving and up to 25 percent at Interstate speeds. 

• Avoid keeping heavy items in your car; an extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could increase your gas costs by up to $.03 cents per gallon.

• Combine errands. Several short trips, each one taken from a cold start, can use twice as much fuel as one trip covering the same distance when the engine is warm.

• Check into telecommuting, carpooling, public transit and active transportation like bicycling or walking to save on fuel and car maintenance costs. Many urban areas provide carpool lanes that are usually less congested, which means you will get to work and home faster and more refreshed.