Gas prices dip; oil plunges

A barrel of crude fell to its lowest level since December - $70.08 on the NY Mercantile Exchange (that's the futures contract for light, sweet crude for June delivery). Oil prices have fallen sharply over the last two weeks (lots of concern about Greece and the European financial mess), but L.A. gas prices have barely budged. The latest government survey has an average gallon of regular going for $3.134, down just 3 cents from last week. For the past eight weeks, L.A. prices have been stuck in that $3.10-$3.15 range. Typically, gas prices increase in the weeks leading up to the Memorial Day weekend, so despite the drop in oil we could be seeing stubbornly high prices for a while.