Spring gas prices finally begin gradual fall Filed: 04/12/2000

By CHIP POWER Californian staff writer e-mail: ppower@bakersfield.com

The descent shouldn't be confused with a Tahoe ski slope but, after a big run-up, gas prices in Bakersfield are moving downward.

New survey results from a Camarillo-based analyst indicate the average price for a self-serve gallon of regular gas eased to $1.8186 on Friday.

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The seasonal high for the price of gas in the city, which recently ranked as the third most expensive in the country, was $1.8418 on March 24, according to analyst Trilby Lundberg, who monitors U.S. wholesale and price trends.

Gas prices have moderated and begun to fall to reflect lower wholesale prices, Lundberg said.

However, she said it was impossible to predict the speed or the extent to which retail gas prices will decline from their lofty levels.

California, which can lay claim to the highest retail gasoline prices, is one of eight states where the method of state, federal and local taxation creates wide price swings up and down, said Lundberg.

"What you have in these cases are taxes upon taxes, so you end up with disproportional and exponentially higher prices."

On Friday, she reported, motorists paid an average of $1.39 for a gallon of gas, and a shade more than 42 cents of tax on the same gallon.

Bakersfield recently ranked No. 3 on a list of cities with the highest gas prices, behind San Francisco and Reno, Nev.

The local price continues its trend of being far higher than the national average.

The national average Friday was $1.5234; the Los Angeles price was $1.7061.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 13, 2000