For the first time in the history of AAA’s tracking, the national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline stayed above $4 on every day of a month.
August finished with the national average at $4.08, and the month’s average of roughly $4.06 surpassed the previous record for August, $3.97 set in 2022. A year ago the average sat at $3.18.
Crude oil is the reason. Prices have hovered in the $80 per barrel range through the summer, with Brent, the international benchmark, climbing higher, while instability along the Strait of Hormuz continues to disrupt global supply. AAA noted that pump prices have stayed elevated even as demand followed its usual late-summer decline. Gasoline demand last week ran at 9.04 million barrels per day, with domestic supply at 206.8 million barrels.
The seasonal relief drivers normally get has not arrived. Prices typically ease once schools resume and road trips taper off, and the switch away from summer-blend gasoline usually helps as well. Crude costs, which account for more than half the price of a gallon according to the Energy Information Administration, have overwhelmed those factors.
