For the first time in 20 years, AAA won’t make a Memorial Day travel forecast

Gas prices continue to increase across the country with nearly every state’s average increasing by an average of 4 cents. At the start of the Memorial Day work week, the national gas price average is $1.87.

The last time the national gas price average leading into the holiday was under $2 a gallon was in 2003. That year motorists paid, on average, $1.50 to fill-up.

“Gas prices around Memorial Day have not been this cheap in nearly 20 years,” said Jeanette Casselano, AAA spokesperson. “However, as the country continues to practice social distancing, this year’s unofficial kick-off to summer is not going to drive the typical millions of Americans to travel.”

Despite inexpensive gas prices, AAA anticipates this year’s holiday will likely set a record low for travel volume.

For the first time in 20 years, AAA won’t issue a Memorial Day travel forecast due to COVID-19 impacts on the underlying economic data used to create the forecast, Casselano said.

Consumers can expect gas prices to continue get more expensive, possibly hitting $2 a gallon in the next few weeks, she said. This is mostly due to demand increasing as states reopen.

This week also brings the Environmental Protection Agency’s waiver on the sale of winter-blend gasoline to an end. Stations will switch over to summer-blend gasoline, which has a lower Reid vapor pressure to prevent excessive evaporation when outside temperatures rise. Reducing the volatility of summer gas decreases emissions that contribute to unhealthy ozone and smog levels.

Usually, the switch to summer-blend can cause gas prices to spike during the summer driving season, but that will likely not be the case this year due to the impact of covid-19 on demand and crude oil prices, Casselano said.

Comments

[azure]

“However, as the country continues to practice social distancing, this year’s unofficial kick-off to summer is not going to drive the typical millions of Americans to travel.” Maybe in NYC and LI it is (I wonder about what it's like on the beaches of the north shore of LI--beaches which only residents of townships & towns can use) but here on the Oregon coast it's: alot more traffic, more people on the beaches, people staying in VRDs (vacation rental dwellings--short term)--I saw many more people walking around in my neighborhood yesterday (which has more & more VRDs every year) and NONE of them wore masks and few tried to stay at least 6' away from myself although I tried to keep my distance. Last time I went to the supermarket & post office in this town on the OR coast, 50% of the customers in the supermarket (estimate, could've been a higher %) were NOT wearing masks, NOT maintaining a 6'distance. Unlike Winco & Costco employees in some parts of the Willamette Valley in OR there is no effort by employees of this Fred Meyer on the OR coast a chain) to enforce mask/distance precautions. Far as I can tell, the need for protection from the novel corona virus is considered to be a joke/unneeded by many of the residents and tourists (most of whom, for the moment, are from OR).
Maybe people in western WA are smarter then the ones in western OR and some others parts of the US.
I strongly doubt if the OR governor will have the courage to shut down OR again if the rate of deaths and/or positives increase. No, with the help of Terrump, the Senate GOP and big pocket GOPers (some of the "freedom to die/be stupid/infect others" demonstrations were funded by wealthy donors/mostly likely donors to the GOP), the US is well on its way to normalizing 100,000 deaths or more as oh well, that's just how it goes/'price of freedom' (as long as it's not them paying the price). There will be a vaccine "soon" or just do what Terrump is supposedly doing, taking that drug that's already been shown to have severe side effects & lack effectiveness in dealing w/COVID-19 while making it far more difficult for those who really do need to take it to obtain the drug at reasonable cost.
But perhaps Terrump or other members of his family will be able to add more $$$ to their wealth if the drug's price goes up.

[Rita]

Hi azure,

The actions by citizens in Western Washington seems to be similar to Oregon. Not everyone wearing masks and some being belligerent about it.

It's just so sad to hear every day on the news that older people are dying of covid-19.

All I can do is write articles like this, urging people to be cautious and stay home myself.

Rita