Gas prices are heading down

TEXAS – NPR is reporting that if you’re planning to squeeze in one last summer road trip over the coming Labor Day weekend, it won’t cost as much to fill up your tank compared to a few months ago. The national average for a gallon of regular has fallen more than 20 cents since May and is now at $3.38 — about 47 cents lower than this time a year ago. Experts say the trend is likely to continue in the coming months, possibly leading to $3-a-gallon gasoline for the first time since 2021. According to AAA, as of Thursday, the price per gallon for regular gasoline ranged from $4.59 in California, where state gas tax is the highest in the nation, to $2.93 in Mississippi, which has one of the lowest tax rates on fuel. “For every Mississippi, you have a California to balance it out,” says Andrew Gross, a spokesperson for AAA.

A year ago, excessive heat forced Texas refineries to curtail operations, and Hurricane Idalia temporarily shut down oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, which contributed to higher prices. Despite record-breaking heat waves across the country this summer, Texas and Louisiana, where the majority of U.S. refineries are located, haven’t been hit as hard. “The late-season wild card is always hurricanes,” says Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “If a hurricane makes landfall in a refining area, it can really disrupt things.” Forecasters have warned of a particularly active hurricane season this year, but things have been quieter than expected — so far. Hurricane Beryl did considerable damage in parts of the Caribbean and caused some disruptions to U.S. refinery operations, but things got back to normal pretty quickly. Even so, energy analyst Stephen Schork, who is principal and co-founder of The Schork Group, cautions that we are entering peak hurricane season, which falls between mid-August and late October. In 2005, the double wallop of Hurricane Katrina at the end of August, followed by Hurricane Rita nearly a month later, “completely disrupted the market and sent prices extremely higher,” he says.