GasBuddy, the leading fuel savings platform providing North American drivers with the most ways to save money on gas, today released its annual Labor Day travel forecast, predicting the average price of gas will continue its recent downward trend, falling to $3.27 per gallon on Labor Day, the lowest Labor Day price since 2021. At $3.27 per gallon, this Labor Day’s national average would be 50 cents per gallon, or 13% below last year’s $3.77 tally, saving Americans a combined $750 million over the Friday-through-Monday travel period.
Since peaking at $3.69 per gallon in mid-April, prices at the pump have eased, with lower demand helping to bring the price of gas down. Some states are seeing significantly lower Labor Day prices this year compared to last year. For instance, average gas prices on the West Coast stand over 65 cents lower than a year ago, with Oregon’s average down 90 cents per gallon, while Washington is down 87 cents and Alaska 84 cents. And, outside of the West Coast, all 50 states will see lower gas prices this Labor Day weekend than a year ago. According to GasBuddy’s summer travel survey in May, Labor Day was the least popular summer holiday to hit the road, with just over a third of respondents planning to road trip to bid farewell to summer.
“It’s been a great summer for motorists to hit the road with gas prices generally lower than last year,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “But heading into Labor Day, the year-on-year gap has grown substantially thanks to few refinery outages or heatwaves impacting refineries this month. Hurricane season has also been quiet so far. With no threats to major gasoline and diesel producing refineries, it’s looking more and more likely that we may avoid a late summer price spike. While many Americans may wish summer could last forever, the good news is we’re seeing perhaps the best opportunity in years for the national average to fall below $3 per gallon. As we get closer to Thanksgiving, we should see tens of thousands of stations ultimately fall back below that level, all thanks to falling seasonal demand and cheaper winter gasoline, which is right around the corner.”
Gas stations in most states will start transitioning to winter blend gas Sept. 16, which will likely help accelerate the decline in gas prices.
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