Drivers in the Coeur d'Alene and Spokane areas might have gotten whiplash this past week, driving by gasoline station posted prices.
The average price in Spokane is now hovering at about $3.23 a gallon for unleaded regular, but at least one 76 station at east Wellesley and Nevada was pumping it for $2.91 a gallon - a level unseen for about four years. And in Kootenai County, prices are almost universally below three dollars a gallon.
The Triple-A says prices across the nation are now the lowest since the beginning of 2011, and have plummeted about 34 cents a gallon from just a month ago.
Analysts who follow such things credit sharp declines in the price of crude oil, and weak fuel demand in Asia and Europe for the steady cuts in pump prices.
But inland northwest drivers may not be concerned about such global dynamics. They just revel in posted prices starting with the number two, rather than 3.
