Households are expected to save $700 on average this year at the gas pumps, as compared to last year, reports Amarillo.com.And this Thanksgiving holiday, prices for goods and travel have fallen to levels not seen since 2007. OPEC began a price war with U.S. natural gas on Thanksgiving of last year. While the battle has been hard on oil workers, consumers have been the ultimate winners.
Karr Ingham, an Amarillo petroleum economist, puts it bluntly: “We’ve cracked open so much crude oil supply that we are literally awash in it and consumers are reaping the benefits of that now.”
Many companies in the oil sector have laid off employees. Even so, Texas has not yet seen a measured decrease in employment this year, despite plummeting gas prices. The unemployment rate in Texas is 4.2 percent, below the national average.