Gas prices around the state continue to go down to prices that we haven’t seen in over five years.

In Greene County, the average price for a gallon of ethanol gas is $2.28.  Co-Owner of Oly’s Corner Mark Olson says these prices are the lowest he’s seen since he’s been owner of the gas station since 2010.  When he first took over, ethanol gas was $1.86.  He points out that its because Saudi Arabia is trying to be more competitive with North Dakota oil piping companies that they are dropping their price of crude oil to $56 per barrel.

Tim Heisterkamp with Investment Centers of America says when people save money at the pump, that usually means they can spend it elsewhere.

“In theory, when gas prices go down, it’ll give people more discretionary income to spend and discretionary income is just that its the things that you get to decide where you want to spend that extra money.  So if people are saving money at the pump, maybe they’ll spend more money at restaurants, maybe they’ll buy more clothes, maybe they’ll take another vacation.  So it’s those kind of things that might get a little bit of bounce because of the low gas prices.”

He adds that currently, the stock market does seem to reflect higher discretionary spending.

However, Olson points out that we could see gas prices continue to fall to about $2 per gallon by the end of the year.