NEW YORK, NY — Gasoline prices averaged $1.904 per gallon in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island area in February 2016, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Chief Regional Economist Martin Kohli noted that gasoline prices were down $0.430 compared to last February when area households paid $2.334 per gallon. Electricity prices averaged 18.2 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), down from the 22.0 cents per kWh paid in February 2015. The average price of utility (piped) gas, at $0.868 per therm, was also lower than last February’s price of $0.959. (Data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year-analysis is used throughout.)
At $1.904 a gallon, the price of gasoline in the New York area was close to the $1.833 national average in February 2016. A year earlier, consumers in the New York area paid $2.334, similar to the national average of $2.308. For the past five years, the local price of a gallon of gasoline has been within 6 percent of the national average in the month of February.
The 18.2 cents per kWh New York households paid for electricity in February 2016 was 36 percent more than the national average of 13.4 cents per kWh. From 2012 to 2015, local area electricity prices in February exceeded the nationwide average by as much as 59 percent.
The average price paid in February 2016 by New York area consumers for utility (piped) gas, commonly referred to as natural gas, was 86.8 cents per therm, close to the national average of 89.5 cents per therm. A year earlier, area consumers paid 5 percent less than the national average for a therm of natural gas, but from 2012 to 2014, the per-therm cost for natural gas in February exceeded the national average by as much as 23 percent.
The New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Conn.-Pa. Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA) consists of Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties in New York State; Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren Counties in New Jersey; Fairfield County and parts of Litchfield, Middlesex, and New Haven Counties in Connecticut; and Pike County in Pennsylvania.