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Gas Prices So Low You Have To Crouch At The Pump

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The temperature isn't the only thing falling this weekend -- gas prices have fallen as low as $1.24 in the Twin Cities!

Prices are well below $1.30 a gallon at several stations in Coon Rapids, Maple Grove and Ramsey. GasBuddy.com says the average price of gas today is $1.45 in the Twin Cities. That's almost 40 cents cheaper than what we were paying a month ago.

"I can fill my car for under $20, so it's kind of a big deal," said one local driver filling up her car.

Rock bottom gas prices have many lining up to fill up their tanks. Lyn 36 refill station at the corner of 36th Street and Lyndale Avenue South is where many come to get a deal. At $1.39 a gallon, gas is 30 cents cheaper than the national average of $1.69.

But if you shop at Costco, you'll save even more. Drivers at the Maple Grove outlet store paid $1.25 a gallon.

"It's a bonus for everybody," driver Nick Field said.

That bonus comes after wholesale gas prices fell 18 cents this week. It made the price at the pump drop, and has many hoping it doesn't end any time soon.

"The safest prediction is that gas prices are going to continue to be volatile -- they go up they go down," University of St. Thomas Professor John Spry said.

Spry says the one thing economists can predict is that gas is the one good whose price changes the most frequently.

"Let's say over the next two years the economy gets better than people had anticipated -- we have great economic news. That's going to increase the demand for oil and increase gas prices," Spry said.

Triple A says domestic crude oil inventories reached their highest level for this time of the year in nearly eight decades, giving us the break at the pump.

"They say it's going to be like this for at least a year," Field said. "They're pumping so much gas out of North Dakota."

A year ago the national average for gas was $2.28 a gallon.

Although refineries will begin switching to a summer blend of gas soon which costs more to make, economists believe prices could dip closer to a dollar a gallon in some parts of the country.

To see the lowest gas prices around town, check wcco.com/gas.

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