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Gasoline prices have fallen by 50 percent in the last two months nationally, but Alaska still has the highest prices in the nation and a slower rate of decline.

Why are we paying more than $2.80 when the national average is below $2?

Because the companies that control the gasoline market here do not base their prices on the national average.

They charge more here because they can.

And the refining business has been hard hit in recent months and perhaps there is an opportunity to recover a bit in the Alaska market, where the economic barriers to a competitor coming in at a lower price are substantial.

The national average for gasoline has fallen 68 days in a row and now is $1.91, CNN reported today, the lowest prices since early 2005.

In 36 states, prices are below $2. In Fairbanks, prices this morning were in the $2.84 range.

The governor and the Legislature, you will recall, suspended the state gasoline tax earlier this year. So Alaska features the highest gasoline prices and the lowest gasoline taxes.

The nationwide average fuel tax is 48.4 cents, combining federal and state taxes.

In Alaska, we pay the federal tax of 18.4 cents. The taxes in California are the highest in the nation, a total of 49 cents per gallon above those in Alaska.

If you take that into account, the average price per gallon in California is $1.22 below that of Alaska. Missouri has the lowest gasoline price in the country, an average of $1.59. The tax there is 18 cents more per gallon than in Alaska.

As the attorney general's office put it in a recent update, "The price of gasoline in the lower 48 is not a good indicator of what prices “should be” in Alaska. The competitive forces that operate to control gasoline prices in the lower 48 are completely different from Alaska. The dynamics of supply, demand, and competition are unique in Alaska."