Gas prices are poised to fall as Memorial Day approaches, a welcome change for motorists who have gotten used to seeing increases cut into their summer vacation money.
Experts who had been predicting a national average of more than $3 per gallon by Memorial Day now say prices have likely peaked just beneath that threshold. Rising supplies and concerns about the global economy have helped send wholesale gasoline prices plummeting by 22 cents a gallon since last week.
“Gasoline supplies are about as good as they’ve ever been going into the summer driving season,” oil analyst Phil Flynn of PFGBest in Chicago says.
The decline is starting to filter down to motorists, but it will take several weeks for the full effects to be reflected in pump prices, which average $2.90 nationwide. By summer, the nationwide average could be below last summer’s peak of around $2.70 a gallon, says Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service. In July 2008, the retail price of regular gasoline peaked at $4.11. The Associated Press
