Low gas prices make Labor Day road trip enticing

Motorists were smiling at the pumps Thursday in Santa Rosa, heading into a sunny Labor Day weekend with gas prices at the lowest level in five years due largely to a global glut in crude oil.

“Ecstatic,” said Evan Maurer, as he finished filling his Ford Focus for a drive to San Jose from the Safeway gas station at Mendocino Avenue and Lewis Road.

“I come to Safeway every time. It’s worth the wait,” the Windsor resident said, with customers queued up at pumps dispensing regular gas for $2.85 a gallon.

Safeway was tied with three other Santa Rosa stations for the lowest local price listed on the GasBuddy.com website, which reports prices at nearly 130,000 stations in the U.S. and Canada.

Santa Rosa’s average price Thursday was $3.15, down more than 30 cents from last month and a whopping 70 cents lower than a year ago, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. GasBuddy listed more than 20 local outlets with gas for less than $3 a gallon. Four stations tied for the highest local price at $3.39.

“I love it,” beamed Debbie Havstad of Santa Rosa, after topping off her hybrid vehicle for less than $30 at Safeway. “In a Prius, I can go forever on that,” she said, admittedly exaggerating the range of her 45-mpg Toyota.

“My sons like it, too, and they own trucks,” Havstad said.

Labor Day marks the end of the summer driving season, and California gas prices - averaging $3.31 on Thursday - are at their lowest level for the holiday weekend since 2010, according to California Energy Commission records. The price on Labor Day last year was $3.84; in 2010 it was $3.04.

Before the same holiday weekend way back in 2002, the price was $1.60 statewide.

“Motorists can expect a good deal at the pump,” said Gordon Schremp, the commission’s senior fuels specialist.

Motorists nationwide should save more than $1 billion on gasoline over the holiday weekend compared to last year, said Michael Green, an AAA spokesman.

Adding to the bright weekend outlook, Santa Rosa is heading for four sun-splashed days, with temperatures rising from 82 on Friday and 85 on Saturday to the low 90s Sunday and Monday, according to Accuweather. The forecasts for Saturday through Monday are slightly above the average for Santa Rosa since 1931, according to Press Democrat records.

Mother Nature powers the sun, while market forces tend to dictate gas prices.

“You can thank crude oil,” Schremp said, noting that global oil production has “clearly outpaced” demand since last summer.

With a current glut of more than 1.5 million barrels a day, crude oil - the key driver of gasoline prices - has plummeted from more than $100 a barrel last summer to $46.75, the closing price Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

California gas prices, while far higher than the national average, should remain low in the short-term future, Schremp said, due to the anticipated restart of a major Southern California refinery, seasonal slackening in demand and the switch on Nov. 1 to winter-blend gasoline.

The average price nationwide Thursday was $2.44 a gallon, according to the AAA report. The 87-cent difference between the California and U.S. prices is twice as large as usual, Schremp said.

Californians are missing out on even lower gas prices in the wake of an explosion in February that crippled an Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance, which produces 10 percent of the state’s gasoline, he said. The refinery’s gas production, shut down since the blast, is expected to resume at least partially in the fall, Schremp said.

Around much of the country, Labor Day gas prices are the lowest since 2004 and down nearly $1 from last year. Gas prices in at least three southeastern states are likely to fall below $2 a gallon within a week, and that level could spread by Christmas if crude oil remains low, the AAA said.

Americans have been taking advantage of the price slump, driving more than 1.54 trillion miles in the first half of the year, an all-time high, according to a Federal Highway Administration estimate last month.

At the Safeway station in Santa Rosa, Evan Maurer said the best play is to enjoy cheaper gas while it lasts. “It’s just a matter of time before it goes back up,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.