Not since January 2005 have California drivers had it this good: The state's average retail price for gasoline tumbled 15.7 cents in the last week to puncture the $2-a-gallon barrier, the Energy Department said Monday.
But many motorists -- convinced that the economy was a mess and fuel costs could leap again with little warning -- were still clinging to behavior acquired when pump prices hit record highs during the summer.
"The effects of these influences on income and wealth have overwhelmed the impact of these fuel price drops," said Energy Department economist Neil Gamson. "And gasoline demand will continue to fall. It will be lower in 2009 than it was this year."
"Under normal market conditions, all of this effort to conserve would have been reversed, but people are not feeling secure about their jobs. They aren't feeling good about their financial situations, and they are saving all of the money they can,"
clipped from: www.latimes.com