Heading into Memorial Day weekend, Floridians can expect for gas prices to decrease for the first time in over three weeks after the attack on the Colonial Pipeline.
While the majority of the state receives gas from multiple ports on the coast of Florida, the disruption of the pipeline caused widespread panic-buying among the parts of the state that do use it, which in turn caused gas prices to increase as demand was high and there was limited supply.
During the pipeline shutdown hiatus, average price for regular-grade gas rose ten cents before dipping back down. For the week that ended on May 22nd, the average price per gallon of regular gas was $2.89, and dropped to $2.87 as of Monday, according to AAA Auto club’s website.
Although the dip in price is only two cents, AAA spokesperson Mark Jenkins expects gas prices to “drift lower” as the holiday weekend approaches based off the five-cent decrease in wholesale gasoline prices from last week. Even with the projected decrease, Jenkins adds that “things can change quickly in the fuel market” and that an expected 2 million holiday travelers in Florida could boost the demand high enough to drive the prices back up as the weekend comes to a close.
The current price is almost a dollar more than the price last year at this time when the pandemic reached its peak in Florida and demand for gas was low. Compared to pre-pandemic years, the current price is 27 cents more than the average price during Memorial Day weekend 2019, but 4 cents less than the average during Memorial Day weekend 2018.
Since the beginning of the year, average gas prices in Florida have slowly increased every month but remained under the national average of $3.03.
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Casey Owens is a writer at The Florida Capital Star. Follow him on Twitter at @cowensreports. Email tips to [email protected].
