Gas Prices Peaked For The Year, Experts Say
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- You may not have noticed much of a change at the gas pumps over the past week, but there is good news ahead -- experts say gas prices have hit their peak for the year.
That means barring a hurricane or refinery issue, prices should go down a little bit this summer- and could take a major drop in the fall.
"If we could get below $2 again, that would be great," said driver Graham Gregori.
We won't see that for a while, but experts say gas prices in Minnesota peaked last week at just over $2.70 a gallon. The average today was about $2.65. That's nothing to write home about, but consider that gas prices were nearly a dollar higher at this time last year.
"Nationally, the peak is far lower than a year ago. So if that's a sign of anything, this summer's gas prices are expected to remain quite a bit lower than what we were showing a year ago," said Patrick DeHaan.
DeHaan is a senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com. He expects prices to drop another 5 to 15 cents by July 4. DeHaan thinks the pace is set for one of the busiest travel seasons on the roadways in a long time.
"In fact, I don't think the starts have aligned for gas prices to be this cheap and the economy to be this strong since, you have to go back to about 2005, to see things align like this," he said.
DeHaan said summer gas prices were this low in 2009, but he said the economy wasn't as strong, so less people traveled.
Experts said in a few months it wouldn't be surprising to see a drop in prices similar to what we saw earlier this year- when they got below $2. That's good news for Uber driver Ann Kennedy.
"The lower it gets the more drivers we have. And the more drivers keep driving with us," she said.
