WASHINGTON – The question posed by the news media going into summer, the peak driving season, is whether retail consumers will be paying more than $4 per gallon for regular gasoline when they fill up their tanks. While the national average retail price for regular gasoline still hovers just under that mark at $3.94 per gallon on April 9, in many areas this question has already been answered.

Consumers on the West Coast have been paying more than $4 per gallon, on average, since the end of February. Retail prices in the Chicago area have averaged more than $4 per gallon for the past month. But other areas have prices still below $4 per gallon, such as the Rocky Mountain region, where prices averaged $3.79 per gallon on April 9, as refiners supplying that area have access to discounted land-locked crude oil.