Washington residents paying more for gas than most of the country

A gallon of gas in Washington costs more than in all but three states.

The average cost for a gallon of gasoline in Washington on Monday morning was $2.87, according to the online gas price aggregator gasbuddy.com. Only residents of California ($3.14), Hawaii ($2.97) and Nevada ($2.88) pay more.

The national average was $2.39, while the average price in Tacoma on Monday morning was $2.91. The average price in Washington was $2.84 while the average is $2.87 in Pierce County and $2.85 in Thurston County.

Tacoma gas prices increased 1.1 cents per gallon over the past week according to GasBuddy’s survey of 271 Tacoma stations. Over that same time period the national average increased 0.9 cents.

Gas prices on Sunday were 26.4 cents per gallon higher than the same time last year, but 1.8 cents lower than a month ago. The national average has increased 1.9 cents per gallon over the past month and 0.5 cents per gallon over the past year.

“The first week of the summer driving season is now under our belts, and we saw little change in gas prices nationally,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. “Prices have seen little change and as we continue to progress into the summer, we’re seeing gas prices now roughly the same as a year ago in many places. Oil markets failed to be convinced last week by OPEC’s production cuts as U.S. oil production rises to its highest level since summer 2015. This has kept the price of oil constrained and keeps the door propped open for gasoline prices to remain at historically low levels as millions of Americans take to the road.”