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Further relief as crude oil prices fall again

BY TOM INCANTALUPO | tom.incantalupo@newsday.com

August 7, 2008

Crude oil and gasoline futures fell again yesterday, signaling further relief for motorists and homeowners who heat with oil in coming months.

Locally, regular gasoline averaged $4.125 a gallon, according to the AAA, down 1.7 cents from Tuesday and 21.4 cents from a month earlier. The Web site Longisland gasprices.com, which is based on motorists' reports, listed a regular gas low of $3.89 Wednesday afternoon at USA and Citgo stations in Patchogue and Coram.

Gasoline for September delivery fell 79 cents to a wholesale price of $2.94 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange after a U.S. Department of Energy report showed reduced demand again last week. Crude oil for September delivery fell 59 cents to settle at $118.58 a barrel on the mercantile exchange, the lowest close since May 2. The government report also showed higher crude oil, diesel fuel and heating oil inventories.

Heating oil averaged $4.65 a gallon on Long Island on July 28, the most recent data according to the state Energy Research and Development Authority, $1.82 gallon higher than a year earlier but down from the record $4.93 on July 14.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday she would introduce legislation to provide a $500 tax credit for homeowners or renters who spend more than $1,500 on home heating fuels this winter, including electricity and wood, with smaller credits for those who spend less. Individual tax filers making less than $50,000 a year would be eligible as well as joint filers making less than $100,000. Above those income levels, the credit would begin to phase out, disappearing at $60,000 and $110,000 respectively.

This story was supplemented with a report from Bloomberg News.