US Fuel Prices Hit Labor Day Record    09/08 06:35

   

   (AP) -- It's never been more expensive in the U.S. to fill up the tank and 
take one last summer trip over the Labor Day weekend.

   The average price of regular gas was $4.14 a gallon heading into the 
holiday, nearly a dollar higher than last year and well above the Labor Day 
weekend record of $3.82 from 2012, according to AAA motor club.

   Nicole Collins planned to head from Philadelphia to South Carolina to visit 
friends, but she said her family has spent most of the summer close to home and 
not taking their typical weekend trips because driving has gotten so expensive.

   "Gas is pretty high right now. It doesn't help that we also have a baby, so 
we also have to pay for that," Collins said outside a gas station in Claymont, 
Delaware, where regular gas was $4.199 a gallon.

   Prices shot up after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February and have 
not settled down since. Crude oil traffic through the key Strait of Hormuz has 
plunged, and Iran has refused to reopen the waterway.

   "Everything points to the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz," said Tom Seng, 
a professor of energy finance at Texas Christian University.

   Energy Secretary Chris Wright offered few specifics on when the nation's 
drivers might see relief at the gas pump, acknowledging that prices are higher 
now than Labor Day 2025.

   "Yes, they're higher today, but we're doing everything we can to push them 
down," Wright said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

   The national average for regular gas prices is still well below the record 
of $5.02 a gallon set in June 2022.

   But diesel is a different story: It hit a national average of $5.85 a gallon 
Friday, a record.

   Trucks and other freight delivery systems use a lot of diesel, and that 
increased transportation cost is being passed on to consumers, whether at the 
grocery store or through package delivery services.

   "It doesn't really seem like there's an end to it," Collins said.

   Gas prices typically drop as the summer driving season ends and refineries 
turn to making a cheaper winter blend.

   But Seng said there are other factors this year even beyond the volatile 
situation in the Middle East that make future prices unpredictable. U.S. 
refineries are working at 98% capacity, many in the unusually harsh Texas heat. 
If there are problems there or a hurricane knocks some systems offline, prices 
will struggle to drop.

   And it's not just a Middle East problem. Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian 
refineries are squeezing diesel supplies. Chinese refiners are seeing declining 
outputs as well, said Matthew Metzgar, a clinical professor of economics at UNC 
Charlotte.

   "There's just less gasoline coming out of those refineries," Metzgar said.

   Wright, the energy secretary, said the Trump administration was taking steps 
to increase production and that the markets forecast lower prices in the coming 
months.

   "If you look at the futures prices, if you wanted to buy today in bulk 
gasoline for two months out in November, it's about $0.35 cheaper than it is 
today. So the marketplace thinks gasoline prices are going to move meaningfully 
lower," he said.

   Geopolitically, though, there is little a driver can do to knock down gas 
prices.

   But using price apps can help save a little money, especially on long trips 
where gas by the interstate could be 10 to 15 cents per gallon more expensive 
than at stations a short drive down the road, Metzgar said.