Gas prices have been a passionate topic of discussion and concern for Americans over the past decade. According to CNN Business, the price of gas at the pumps across the nation met an all-time-high average of $5.02 per gallon on June 14, 2022. Especially in California, the record-high price was reached in June 2022, when gas hit a staggering $6.64 per gallon. This did not magically happen, though. According to the U.S. Energy Administration, “U.S. wholesale natural gas prices were particularly volatile in 2022 because of additional uncertainty caused, in part, by increased European demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February and the explosion at the Freeport LNG export terminal in June.” However, gas prices have recently reached an all-time low of the past 4 years. “The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hasn’t been this low in March since 2021, when the pandemic significantly reduced demand and kept prices suppressed,” reports Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

Data compiled from more than 12 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country show that America’s national average price for gasoline is down 8.9 cents from a month ago and is a whopping 36.7 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. Shia Shirvani, an 11th-grade student at Corona del Mar High School, noted that “seeing gas prices this low is something certainly refreshing. As someone who has had their license for a while now, I am glad to see the drop. I remember back in 2022 how extreme it got at one point—my parents would always complain about any extra driving because of it.” Looking into the future of gas prices, according to the US Energy Information Administration, it is estimated,“U.S. average gasoline prices in 2025 will decrease by 11 cents per gallon (gal), or about 3%, compared with 2024. In 2026, we forecast a further decrease of about 18 cents/gal, or an additional 6%.”