Gas prices tick up for Labor Day but far cheaper than last year

Despite a tiny uptick in the past week, gasoline prices for the Labor Day weekend should hit their lowest levels since 2004, giving summer’s end travelers an estimated $70 million break at the pump each day.

Expect more people on the road as a result. AAA reported 55 percent of Americans are more likely to take a road trip this year over the Labor Day weekend because of lower fuel prices.

Motorists will buy about 400 million gallons of gasoline each day over the holiday weekend, at a cost of about $880  million per day, according to an Oil Price Information Service forecast.

Last year, when gasoline was 25 cents a gallon higher, motorists spent $950 million a day to hit the roads, said Fred Rozell, director of business development and retail pricing for OPIS, an independent petroleum pricing company.

In Santa Rosa, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas Thursday was $2.68, up half a penny from a week ago but down a nickel from last month and nearly 50 cents less than last year at this time, when the average was $3.16, according to the AAA report.

Californians were paying the second-highest prices in the nation at $2.68 a gallon Thursday, behind only Hawaii at $2.74. The national average price was $2.22, compared with $2.46 a year ago, the AAA said.

Motorists in two states - South Carolina and Alabama - were paying less than $2 a gallon.

But Californians are paying 67 cents less than a year ago, when gas averaged $3.35 a gallon, while the national average dropped 25 cents over the same period.

The nation’s motorists are “on track to pay the lowest Labor Day gas prices since 2004,” the AAA said, while offering a caution for the West Coast because of a potential crimp on gasoline supplies heading into the holiday weekend.

GasBuddy forecast a Labor Day national average price of $2.19 a gallon, down from $2.40 on the holiday last year and a whopping $1.64 cheaper than the peak Labor Day price in the past decade of $3.83 a gallon in 2012.

California and Santa Rosa recorded all-time top prices in October 2012 at $4.67 statewide and $4.65 in the city, AAA said.

GasBuddy said motorists have enjoyed the “cheapest summer at the pump since 2004,” saving nearly $19 billion over the season.

The summertime national average price - from Memorial Day through Labor Day - was forecast at $2.24 this year, compared with $2.70 last year and a peak of $3.84 in 2008.

Noting the recent uptick, Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy’s senior petroleum analyst, said it would be just the third time in a decade that prices are rising ahead of Labor Day.

Since 2005, national gas prices between the end of August and Labor Day have dropped seven out of 10 times, with prices averaging a 2 cent drop, GasBuddy said.

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