U.S. fuel prices continue to increase

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.

And the pain at the pump didn't stop when the holiday ended. According to AAA, Idaho’s average gas price skyrocketed by ten cents overnight with Wednesday's average price in the Gem State reported at $4.72 for a gallon of regular – ten cents more than Tuesday. 

The effect was even more dramatic in some parts of the state, with prices soaring 13-16 cents per gallon.  AAA says that escalated fighting in the Middle East is the main reason for the change. 

“The conflict between the United States and Iran is heating up, and so is fighting between the Yemeni Houthis and Saudi Arabia over another critical shipping lane, the Bab el-Mandeb,” says AAA Idaho public affairs director Matthew Conde.  “As long as those areas are supply chain chokepoints, crude oil prices will be under tremendous pressure.”

The national average currently sits at $4.22, jumping seven cents overnight.  26 of the 50 states had price jumps of more than five cents today, and 14 had price jumps of more than ten cents.  Utah led the way with an astonishing 23-cent spike in just a single day.

“The fact that Utah, which supplies most of our gasoline and diesel products, experienced that kind of price shock could have major implications on pump prices in our state and across the entire Rockies region,” Conde said.  “We’ll continue to monitor the trends and share what we learn.” 

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, Del., 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.