Travelers this Memorial Day weekend could spend more than $3 per gallon to fill up, the highest gas prices this time of year since 2014 amid fallout from the Colonial Pipeline hack earlier this month.
The higher gas prices come as more than 37 million people are expected to hit the roads, most of them by car, as more states lift coronavirus restrictions for fully vaccinated people. That is an increase of 60% from last year’s Memorial Day weekend travel, which was at the height of the pandemic lockdowns, according to AAA.
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Nonetheless, travel still hasn’t returned quite to pre-pandemic levels. AAA said this year’s expected travel is still 13% less than in 2019.
National average gas prices on May 24, the Monday before Memorial Day weekend, were $3.02 per gallon, $1.14 higher than gas prices a year ago and the highest this time of year since 2014, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Gas prices climbed earlier this month after the hack and shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, a 5,500-mile artery from Houston to the doorstep of New York City that is responsible for nearly half of the East Coast’s fuel supply, including gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel.
The pipeline’s shutdown prompted a race to the pumps to fill up, spiking gasoline demand and prices and leading to gas station outages all along the East Coast.
A handful of states is still regaining fuel, according to GasBuddy. For example, 39% of the gas stations in Washington, D.C., are still without fuel, along with a quarter of the gas stations in Georgia and South Carolina. Other states still suffering outages include North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, and Florida, where outages ticked up in recent days.
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Beyond the pipeline hack, gasoline demand has also generally been rising as the United States economy recovers gradually from the pandemic.
The number of people traveling by plane this Memorial Day weekend is also six times more than last year, which was a historically low year for air travel, according to AAA. Nearly 2.5 million people will fly this weekend, though that is still 750,000 fewer air travelers than in 2019.
