Holiday Gas Prices & TPP

At his news conference Friday President Obama said passage of the bipartisan spending bill gives him hope that Congress will pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which he said would be a win for agriculture.

OBAMA: There are going to be a handful of areas where we can make real progress. Trans-Pacific Partnership which now has been out, Congress has had a chance to review and a huge win for agriculture because now the people in Japan are going to be in a better position to enjoy American beef and American pork which up until this time, even though we're much more efficient producers has been tagged with a tax that makes our products uncompetitive in Japanese markets so this is a big deal and I think Speaker Ryan would like to try to get it done.

I guess you could call this an early Christmas present. According to AAA the average price for a gallon of gas nationally has dropped below $2 for the first time since 2009. Folks heading out for the Christmas holiday will find the average price at $1.99. The latest report says that more than two-thirds of gas stations are selling below the $2 level with some even below $1.90. Unfortunately here in the northwest, the average price per gallon is still above the $2 mark. Oregon is averaging $2.31, Idaho, $2.14 and Washington State a whopping $2.43 a gallon.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.