Kendra Yoshinaga

WMAL.com

WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Gas prices in the District of Columbia have fallen below two dollars for the first time since the Great Recession, according to the American Automobile Association.

“There are children who are currently in the second grade, and their parents haven’t paid prices this low since when those children were born,” says John Barrett Townsend of AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Barrett attributes the record-low gas prices in part to the weather: with temperatures freezing across much of the U.S., people aren’t driving as much.

The decreased demand for gas, Barrett says, brings “an overabundance of supply that always favors the consumer.”

In addition, a range of other factors are contributing to the plunging prices, including increased domestic oil production and competition among oil producers in the Middle East.

Despite today’s historic low price of $1.99 per gallon, the District remains one of the most expensive gasoline markets in the country. The average national gas price today was just $1.70 per gallon.