BOISE -- Gas prices have continued to drop due to growing gas inventories, lower driver demand and a rebounding dollar, but the price at the pump can vary widely from one region one region of the country to another, and even from one end of the Gem State to the other, AAA Idaho said today.

"The unusual thing we're seeing is that there are tremendous disparities in prices depending on where you live," said AAA Idaho spokesman Dave Carlson. "Boise's average $3.65 price today is 40 cents more than what motorists are paying in Coeur d'Alene ($3.25)."

Based on AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the nationwide average price of self-serve regular gasoline has dropped 15 cents since last week and is now $3.48 a gallon. Idaho's average price dropped 9 cents during that same period, to $3.58.

The price of gasoline in the United States spiked as a result of refinery and pipeline system shutdowns due to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Now that gasoline inventories are improving, prices in the hardest hit markets are dropping, though not uniformly.

Oklahoma boasts the lowest price in the country at $3.09 a gallon. Just three weeks ago, the average price there was $3.65. But motorists in North Carolina and Georgia — where gas typically is among the nation's least expensive — are still paying average prices of $3.79 and $3.77, respectively, due to tight inventories. As supplies normalize, AAA expects prices should fall substantially faster.

The dramatic price differentials from one community to another in Idaho suggest that wholesale prices from Spokane-based terminals may be lower than those in communities served by the Salt Lake pipeline that provides gasoline in southern Idaho. AAA Idaho said regional competition may also have something to do with the huge disparities from community to community.

Among eight Idaho communities that AAA observed, gasoline prices ranged from a low $3.10 a gallon in Coeur d'Alene, to a high of $3.88 in Twin Falls. Elsewhere they were: Pocatello, $3.49; Idaho Falls, 3.46, Twin Falls, $3.67; Boise $3.65; Burley $3.57; Moscow, $3.41; Lewiston, $3.28; Coeur d'Alene, $3.25.

"The rate of the drop may be slower in southern Idaho, but the markets strongly suggest we should be seeing sharply lower prices in the next several weeks," Carlson said.