The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular  gasoline in the Inland Empire dropped four-tenths of a cent today to $4.683,  one day after a six-day streak of increases totaling 52.4 cents ended with a  decrease of one-tenth of a cent.
      The average price in Riverside and San Bernardino counties is 47.5 cents  more than one week ago, 53.8 cents higher than one month ago and 89.5 cents  greater than one year ago, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price  Information Service.
      A sharp decrease of the wholesale gasoline price Monday makes it seem  "hopeful we will get some big drops soon, if not in the next few days,  certainly in the coming weeks," Marie Montgomery Nordhues of the Automobile  Club of Southern California told City News Service.
      Nordhues credited the sharp decrease of the wholesale gasoline price to  Gov. Jerry Brown's order Sunday directing the California Air Resources Board to  immediately allow oil refineries to make an early transition to winter-blend  gasoline, which isn't typically sold until Nov. 1.
      "That announcement seemed to immediately resolve the supply concerns  that had caused the panic on the spot market last week," Nordhues said.