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Falling gas prices have upsides and downsides

Consumers are celebrating the cheapest gasoline prices in more than a decade, but there are downsides to the crude oil slide.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Consumers are celebrating the cheapest gasoline prices in more than a decade, which was clearly evident Friday at a gas station in Minneapolis.

"I came all the way across town for this!" Rovia Sapp told KARE, reacting the to $1.39 per gallon price posted by the 36Lyn Refuel Station at 36th St. and Lyndale Avenue South.

The line was spilling into the street because that price was 19 cents lower than the $1.58 average for the Twin Cities that day, the lowest average price since 2003.

"I saw it on my Gas Buddy app, and then came over here, and then I was like, okay, everybody must have that app or something!" Sapp explained, as he looked at the line of cars around him.

Nearby Scott Nelson was filling his 2005 Cadillac Escalade, shaking his head in disbelief at the fact he could buy 14.1 gallons for $19.59.

"A few years ago it was a hundred bucks for a pack of cigarettes and a full tank of gas!"

The clear upside for a consumer driven economy is that people will be able to spend their gas money on other things as long as the price of crude oil continues to slide.

And fuel-intensive industries such as airlines and cargo shipping companies will reap a bonus from lower gasoline.

The downside is that local companies whose fates are tied to domestic oil production will continue to take a hit.

"There are many suppliers in the Twin Cities that supply products and services to North Dakota's oil fields," Erin Roth of the American Petroleum Institute of Minnesota and Wisconsin told KARE.

For example frac sand mining in southern Minnesota has slowed significantly since the crude oil prices began to slump.

"Some of those plants have been idled because the price of crude oil is so low," Roth explained. "We'll also see profit margins shrink for retail gasoline sellers as well as refineries such as Northern Tier and Flint Hills Resources."

Roth also pointed out that investments in fossil fuel exploration, as well as stock prices and retirement funds could feel the pinch.

"Since the meltdown of 2008, what really helped people's pensions in the stock market was energy sector stocks."

Yet many motorists share the sentiments expressed by Darlene Franson after filling up with gas at 36Lyn Refuel Station.

"It seems to go down and down and down, and I’m so happy!! God bless the man who gave us this cheap gas!"

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