Memorial Day is one of the biggest travel weekends of the year, and gas prices in the Northeast are slightly higher than usual for this time of year. Anyone traveling around New England can expect to pay as much as $4 a gallon in some counties, and more cars are expected to be out on the roads.
Industry experts say the recent spike in prices was caused by yearly maintenance work at oil refineries that slowed down production, and the annual switch from winter blend to summer blend fuel, which was more costly than usual this year.
Dan Goodman, a spokesperson for AAA Northern New England, said, “Prices were creeping up for a while, and though in Vermont we’ve seen prices start to go down a little bit.”
Now that the switch in seasonal blends has happened, prices are expected to moderate, even if demand goes up. The average price in Vermont according to AAA is $3.60, compared to $3.50 last year. However, in Vermont’s Essex county is the average is $3.73.
Prices are slightly higher in parts of the North Country with an average of $3.82 in Essex County. Clinton and Franklin Counties are faring slightly better with averages just under $3.60 according to AAA.
The average price in New Hampshire is lower than Vermont and the North Country at $3.49. New Hampshire’s average a year ago was $3.37.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, says, “This year, the difference between winter and summer gasoline in price was pretty significant, about 25 cents. Now that that transition is over, gasoline supplies are starting to go up, or I should say the supplies of that summer blend are going up, and that’s helping to ease gas prices.”
Gas demand is expected to go up over Memorial Day Weekend, with 43.8 million people expecting to travel, and 38 million of those by car according to AAA. That’s the highest amount in any year since AAA started tracking those numbers in 2001.
Most gas stations have worked that rise in demand into current prices, os the next big price jump won’t come until hurricane season and threatens oil refineries’ operations in the south. Goodman said, “That’s when we could start to see gas prices inch back up and a little more volatile in that September-October.”
De Haan also said gas prices could cool off a bit if high interest rates continue nationwide. Experts do expect that to help with inflation, which could mean lower prices at the pump.
On Tuesday, President Biden announced his administration is releasing 1 million barrels of oil from reserves in the northeast to help lower prices. The gas comes from storage sites in New Jersey and Maine and will be released in increments of 100,000 barrels at a time to create a competitive bidding process. De Haan says this will drive prices down slightly, but only equates to about 2.7 hours of total American fuel consumption.