After several months as one of the top 10 most expensive states to buy gas, Idaho experienced what AAA spokesman Dave Carlson calls a "psychotic" drop-off.

Idaho is now the ninth-cheapest state to buy gas with average prices for a gallon of gas dropping to $1.95 across the state Tuesday. That compares to the national average of $2.12 per gallon.

"It's obviously a major turn in prices," Carlson said. "If you want to call it psychotic, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense given everything we know about wholesale prices."

Gas prices in Idaho reached more than $3 per gallon Dec. 1 for the first time in several years, he said, so the sharp drop in prices has occurred only in the past two months.

Prior to the drop, Idaho had some of the highest gas prices in the nation. Carlson attributes that to Idaho's isolation from the wider marketplace for oil.

"The thing with certainty we can say is Idaho historically has used the isolation from other marketplaces as a way to retain their price structure," Carlson said. "Retailers in this state were able to not pass along the savings they were experiencing."

Carlson said he believes public recognition that retailers were taking advantage of the isolated market may have contributed at least partially to the severe drop in Idaho prices.

"We saw the biggest drop here in the past 60 days that we have probably ever seen," Carlson said. "We have to think part of that is that there was public recognition that Idaho retailers were using Idaho's isolation to make it happen."

So when the prices started to drop - and drop quicker than ever before - Carlson said it was alarming but consistent with price changes in wholesale oil.

He said there's simply too much oil in the marketplace right now because oil production and exploration is not consistent with demand. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has indicated it's going to continue producing at its current rate, Carlson said, and the U.S. has not shown any significant cuts in drilling efforts.

"It would take a while for us to use the oil that's already in the marketplace," Carlson said. "Even if they begin to cut their production now ... AAA is predicting that (gas prices) will not go above $3 for the whole year."

Wholesale oil prices are now about $3 less than last week, when Carlson said he didn't believe they could get any lower.

"That's where we're at and prices apparently have not met a bottom," Carlson said. "We have hit a situation that's similar to 2008. We have seen demand destruction ... for now it means lower gas prices."

As for the demand part of the equation, Carlson said it's the slowest season of the year for driving travel so he doesn't see that part of the supply-demand chain changing anytime soon.

"This is a great consumer benefit," Carlson said. "It is giving us all a little more of an opportunity to more wisely spend what we have in our pocketbooks. I don't think it's going to change."

The cheapest gas in the Quad Cities area can be found in Lewiston with $1.87 per gallon at the Exxon located at 17372 Nez Perce Road and U.S. Highway 95 at the Clearwater River Casino and Lodge. In Clarkston, Costco has the cheapest gas for $1.92 per gallon. It's a little pricier to fill up on the Palouse, but not by much. In Moscow, drivers can fill up for $1.97 at the Tesoro on the corner of Troy Road and White Avenue. Pullman drivers can find gas under $2 per gallon - barely - at the Tesoro on Grand Avenue for $1.99. All gas prices are according to Gasbuddy.com's Tuesday reports.

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Krasselt can be reached at intern1@lmtribune.com.