Signs of relief for Washington drivers as increase in gas prices begins to slow

Although gas prices across the Seattle area and Washington state have continued to rise steadily in recent weeks, that growth finally started to slow in recent days.

Gas prices are ‘at the whim of the market,’ says AAA Washington

In the first week of March, gas prices in the Seattle metropolitan area — covering Seattle, Everett, and Bellevue — rose from $4.18 a gallon to to $4.63, before ballooning to $4.89 just three days after that.

Four days later, the region’s gas prices appear to have stabilized slightly, having settled around $4.91 a gallon as of Tuesday morning, with single-cent increases in each of the last four days.

According to AAA, that slowing can at least be partially attributed to a decrease in the price of crude oil, having fallen from $123 a barrel following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to just under $110 as of Monday, March 14.

But while declining crude oil prices could continue to “remove some of the extreme upward price pressures consumers have found at the pump,” AAA notes, there’s still no guarantee that this trend will hold long-term.

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“It bears reminding that the cost of oil accounts for about 50% of what drivers pay at the pump,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said in a recent news release. “This war is roiling an already tight global oil market and making it hard to determine if we are near a peak for pump prices, or if they keep grinding higher. It all depends on the direction of oil prices.”

Statewide, Washington is averaging $4.74 a gallon, the fourth most of any state behind California ($5.75), Hawaii ($4.99), and Nevada ($4.96). A month ago, the state sat just below $4 a gallon, while prices were down around $3.27 at this time last year.

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