As many Americans hit the road for spring break and Easter weekend, filling up the tank will be far cheaper than it was a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association.
The national average was $3.16 for a gallon of unleaded fuel on Friday, a solid 51 cents cheaper than the $3.67 Americans paid a year ago. While the price per gallon is up slightly from last week, increased demand for spring break travel and seasonal maintenance at oil refineries has prices typically peaking around the second week of April, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
“First of all, refineries are doing maintenance. During maintenance, they’re obviously taking part of their units offline to do upgrades, to maintain them, to do inspections. The refineries essentially aren’t churning out as much gasoline in the spring as this maintenance is ongoing,” De Haan said.
This year, with many reciprocal tariffs now in place rising the prices of some consumer goods, a dip in the price of oil could balance the equation. Earlier in the month the price of oil was down 28% from a year ago and dropped 3% alone on Thursday of last week.
President Donald Trump has praised the economy under his watch highlighting those goods such as some groceries and gas that have gotten cheaper, while other items such as eggs have stayed relatively high. “The United States is taking in RECORD NUMBERS in Tariffs, with the cost of almost all products going down, including gasoline, groceries, and just about everything else. Likewise, INFLATION is down. Promises Made, Promises Kept!,” the president wrote on his Truth Social network on Tuesday.
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