National gasoline prices have fallen below $3 a gallon on average for the first time in four years, and Colorado’s prices are even cheaper, as regular drivers have no doubt noticed. The average gallon in Colorado is hovering at about $2.47, at least 40 cents below the price this time last year. 

But local drivers may not know why. With the help of some local experts, we’re here to tell you. 

It’s because Suncor, the refinery that is the major supplier for Colorado, is buying really cheap Canadian oil. 

It’s because OPEC is pumping at major volumes around the world, even though their prices are lower than they want. 

And it’s because Buc-ee’s is happy to break even at their massive gas pump array in Johnstown so long as you also walk inside and overspend on beef jerky, neck pillows and beaver-themed sleepwear. 

National gas prices hit a four-year low last week according to AAA, averaging $2.99 a gallon, the first dip below $3 in that period. Colorado has it even better, according to AAA’s local price wizard Skyler McKinley. There are neighborhood stations on the Front Range selling at $1.69 a gallon, in fierce price fights with competitors across the street, McKinley said. 

Suncor’s Commerce City refinery, the only one in the state, gets most of its crude oil in a pipeline straight from Canada’s controversial oil sands fields. While the international benchmark West Texas Intermediate is selling for $57 a barrel, McKinley noted, Suncor can get Canadian oil at $47.

Growth of the mega-fueling convenience stores, from Buc-ee’s to QuikTrip to Maverik, in the Front Range suburbs is also bringing prices down, McKinley noted. They don’t need to turn a profit on gasoline, because they have thousands of square feet of retail space selling us water-based drinks at $6 a pop, or a hundred varieties of dried meat, or every known variety of salty chip. 

That competition doesn’t help the mountain towns, though — Pitkin County is averaging $4.30 a gallon right now, McKinley said, and Front Range drivers who stay home don’t know how good they have it. 

McKinley’s other job is running a bar in Routt County, where there’s no Buc-ee’s in a toothy price fight with a Maverik.

“Nobody up here is saying gas prices are cheap. There’s one gas station in this town I’m in, and they’ll charge a comparatively higher margin because they’re able to,” McKinley said.

Still, it never makes sense for Front Range drivers to go a long way past their $2.30 a gallon local station in search of that elusive $1.60, he said. 

“It’s not good economically, once you factor in the gas to get there and the wear and tear on your vehicle, you’re losing money. It would have to be a major, major, major price gap,” he said. 

The growth of electric-powered vehicles on Colorado’s roads has not yet contributed to falling gasoline prices, McKinley said. While new EV sales have been robust, the electric fleet is still small compared with the enormous fleet of gasoline cars bought over decades. Besides, among the 75% to 80% of the public still buying gasoline vehicles, Colorado has a well-documented preference for relatively low-mileage pickup trucks and SUVs.

When EVs will make a gasoline price mark “is a great question,” McKinley said. “We’ve just not reached that saturation in the market and in Colorado,” even though the state leads the pack in EV adoption nationally. Even those who have bought EVs are still using them primarily for local trips, not the 200-mile round trips from plains to Front Range cities, or from Front Range cities to resort areas.

“So, look, we’re still a gas-guzzling state, for better, for worse,” he said. 

And the Trump administration is only accelerating those habits, clean energy advocates say, with its recent decision to abandon ambitious Democrat-era mileage standards for America’s new vehicle fleet. The Biden administration’s requirement was that each auto manufacturer average about 50 miles per gallon in the vehicles it sells by 2031. They could achieve that by a mix of making more efficient gasoline vehicles and selling more EVs, whose fuel efficiency helps raise the average. 

Trump’s agencies are rolling back the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standard to 34 miles a gallon by 2031. Aside from pollution issues, said Travis Madsen, transportation analyst with the Boulder-based nonprofit Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, the administration’s rollback is a bad economic move for many Americans. 

“It’s a step backward on affordability. These fuel economy rules are one of the most important things the federal government has ever done to save people money,” Madsen said. “If you look at the results of the policy, since it was first put into place in 1975, people have saved well over a trillion dollars on fuel that otherwise would have literally gone up in smoke. And there is definitely potential to save more fuel and to save more money.”

Pollution potential is a factor as well, Madsen said. “If you’re burning more fuel than you need to in your vehicle, that results in air pollution, particularly we’re talking about carbon dioxide, which is the main pollutant that’s driving climate change. So the less efficient our vehicles are, the more polluting they are.”

Coloradans weighing the current cheap gas prices and the loss of some EV subsidies when considering buying a new car should know what they are comparing, Madsen added. Despite public complaints about recent increases in their electrical bills, owning and maintaining an EV over time is still a big money-saver, he said. 

“Especially if they’re able to charge at home, they have access to pretty cheap electricity,” Madsen said. A Denver driver charging an EV at home overnight is paying for energy equivalent to well below $1 a gallon of gasoline. “If the signs in front of the gas station started to get down near $1 a gallon, or lower, that might start affecting this affordability argument. And adjusted for inflation, gasoline has never been that cheap.”