{"id":468582,"date":"2025-12-24T09:18:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468582\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T09:18:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:18:22","slug":"us-drivers-are-seeing-lower-gas-prices-this-holiday-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/468582\/","title":{"rendered":"US drivers are seeing lower gas prices this holiday season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">This <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/holidays\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">holiday season<\/a>, many U.S. drivers are getting the gift of lower gas prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">According to data from motor club AAA, December has been the cheapest month for prices at the pump this year. The national average for unleaded gasoline has stayed below the $3 mark since Dec. 2, falling to its lowest level of about $2.85 a gallon on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">That figure has inched up slightly since, sitting at closer to $2.86 a gallon Tuesday \u2014 but overall, consumers hitting the road ahead of the Christmas holiday will likely continue to see mild prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">As always, some states have cheaper averages than others, due to factors ranging from nearby refinery supply to local fuel requirements. Hawaii had the highest average of about $4.44 a gallon on Tuesday, <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">per AAA<\/a> \u2014 followed by $4.30 in California and $3.92 in Washington. Meanwhile, Oklahoma had the lowest average at about $2.30 per gallon, followed by nearly $2.42 in both Arkansas and Iowa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Still, nationwide, unleaded gasoline is down more than 18 cents than it was at this time last year, and 21 cents from a month ago. So far, AAA says that prices seen this month mark the cheapest December for gas prices since 2020, when the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/covid-19-pandemic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> roiled the economy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The travel organization notes that this month&#8217;s cheaper prices arrive as supply remains strong. Crude oil, the main ingredient in gasoline, has also been at a relatively mild level \u2014 with West Texas Intermediate remaining below the $60 per barrel mark for most of December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Relief at the pump is welcome for consumers who have been <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/poll-economy-inflation-groceries-costs-trump-affordability-d27635d279b27e5e2c19700c006ebb1d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">feeling higher prices<\/a> in other parts of their budgets \u2014 as worries about the costs of goods ranging from groceries to holiday gifts rise amid ongoing inflation and U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tariffs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tariffs<\/a> on foreign imports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Government data actually showed that <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/inflation-consumer-prices-economy-trump-tariffs-e26c4b6ee05533fd6686555e125b2e53\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">consumer prices cooled<\/a> in November, rising at just 2.7% from a year earlier. But year-over-year inflation still remains well above the Federal Reserve&#8217;s 2% target \u2014 and economists quickly warned that last month\u2019s numbers were suspect because of delays and possible distortions from the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/government-shutdown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">43-day federal shutdown<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Most Americans have continued to express anger and frustration about the high cost of living \u2014 as well as an uncertain job market. On Tuesday, the Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/consumer-confidence-conference-board-economy-spending-55a603a497c5885745b87de8fc5f7821\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fell in December<\/a> to its lowest level since April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This holiday season, many U.S. drivers are getting the gift of lower gas prices. According to data from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":468583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[213027,347,64,2239,57,46736,266,13790,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-468582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-213027","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economic-indicators","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-holiday-shopping","14":"tag-inflation","15":"tag-international-trade","16":"tag-u-s-news","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115773800745106929","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}