(The Center Square) – Gas prices are the lowest they’ve been in four years coming into the holiday weekend, sitting at a national average of $3.14 per gallon of unleaded, according to gas prices tracker GasBuddy.
They’re down more than 8 cents from one week ago and over 37 cents from one year ago, in line with trends from earlier this year.
“Americans will spend over $500 million less on gasoline from Thursday, July 3, through Sunday, July 6, compared to last year” if prices continue on their current trajectory, according to the fuel price comparison tool.
President Donald Trump has touted falling gas prices multiple times since the start of his second term. The White House publicized lower gas prices on Memorial Day, as well, which were also the cheapest they had been since 2021.
Prices are $1.69 per gallon less than this day in 2022, when the U.S. was still climbing out of the economic quagmire of the pandemic, despite rising some in the past couple weeks while tensions escalated in the Middle East between Israel and Iran. They’ve fallen again with the solidification of the Israel-Iran ceasefire last week.
While major conflicts have continued or broken out around the globe, gas prices have fluctuated within an approximately 20-cent window over the past five-plus months, from $3.02, at the lowest, to a high of $3.25 in April.
The president has encouraged domestic energy production, attempting to lift certain permitting restrictions and regulatory burdens that have interfered with American oil and gas production – in part to lessen U.S. dependence on other countries.
Gas prices are highest in the West, topping out at an average $4.55 per gallon in California, and generally lowest in the South, falling to an average $2.69 per gallon in Mississippi. Midwest state gas prices peak in Illinois at an average $3.44 per gallon and Pennsylvania has the highest average price in the Northeast at an average $3.35.
