- AAA says the national average gas price is $3.29, but the “most common” price, is actually closer to $2.95, according to President Biden’s energy advisor, Amos Hochstein.
- AAA said it expects 55.4 million people to travel for the holiday weekend, the third-highest number in any year since 2000.
- We’ll still be checking in on gas prices on Thanksgivings to come, but advisor Hochstein said the pieces are being put into place to make “the electric vehicle experience in America be the best in the world,” so the more stable cost of electricity will take some of the fluctuations out of holiday travel.
Thanksgiving travelers have more choices than ever for how to get to their holiday destinations this year. For drivers of vehicles with old-school gas engines, the good news is that lower gas prices make this the Thanksgiving with the lowest gas prices since the first COVID-19 holiday three years ago. Lower energy costs across the board should make for even better news for electric vehicle drivers hitting the road in future weekends.
On Tuesday, the national average gas price in the U.S. was $3.29, according to AAA. The driver advocacy organization said this number has been dropping for the past two months, one reason why we might see more cars on the road this weekend than in previous years. AAA said it expects 55.4 million people will travel at least 50 miles this Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with 88.7 percent (49.1 million) doing so in a car. The forecast is an increase of 2.3 percent compared to last year and represents the third-highest Thanksgiving travel forecast since AAA began tracking holiday travel in 2000. Both 2005 and 2019 saw higher forecasts.
More people traveling for the holiday this year makes sense to Amos Hochstein, senior advisor to President Biden for energy, who told Car and Driver that Biden Administration efforts regarding the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, using some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), and other actions helped bring gas prices down.
“What President Biden has wanted to do all along is to bring prices to consumers down, to lower inflation, and what we’re seeing this Thanksgiving,” he told C/D. “We are at the low end of the year as far as gas prices for the country, and it’s happening on the week of Thanksgiving, where prices will be the lowest since 2020.”
Most Common Price Is under $3 a Gallon
Hochstein said the $3.29 number is actually more than most people will pay at the pump this week. “The most common gasoline price right now that Americans will find is below $3, $2.95 or so,” Hochstein said. “We’re hoping that we can bring prices further down, especially to make sure that consumers can see lower prices through the holiday season as we go towards January.”
By “most common,” Hochstein means the price that more people will pay because these lower costs are at higher-traffic locations across the country. Higher price tags in other parts of a state might push the average price up to $3.29, but people still have choices.
“Remember, even if you have a state where prices are [low], like in Alabama, where, let’s say, it’s $2.87, that’s the average,” he said. “That means that there are a lot of gas stations that have prices significantly even below that [and where more people go].”
While Hochstein acknowledged there are factors outside the control of any one person or president, he said Biden’s approach to energy and infrastructure policy set us on the path not only for the lower costs this weekend but also to lessen the impact of global conflicts on holiday spending.
“The president has asked us to do two things at the same time,” Hochstein said. “Number one is to accelerate the energy transition, to make sure that we’re committed to our climate change goals, and that we’re not as reliant on these wars in the Middle East or in Russia, or other national security issues.
“At the same time, we understand it’s an energy transition, and we have to have sufficient fuel that is available and affordable during this period of transition. We can do both of those things at the same time.”
Preparing for the Rise of EVs
Hochstein said President Biden implemented three key policies that will encourage the shift to electrification, including the Inflation Reduction Act to stimulate growth and reduce the cost of EVs, the CHIPS Act to make more chips required for these EVs in the U.S., and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that is investing $7.5 billion in EV charging infrastructure.
“As we accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles, the price of electricity becomes really important,” he said. “The price that we often talk about is gasoline, but if you think about the price of natural gas right now, and the price of wind and solar, the three largest drivers of electricity prices, they’re all down.” Hochstein added that the stable and potentially declining price of electricity is coming at a time when the country is using more electricity the way that it has long used gasoline.
“All these [policies] are interlinked,” Hochstein said. “They’re complicated, but we want to have the electric vehicle experience in America be the best in the world, and more advanced so that it incentivizes more drivers to choose to buy one over a gasoline car.”
Contributing Editor
Sebastian Blanco has been writing about electric vehicles, hybrids, and hydrogen cars since 2006. His articles and car reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Automotive News, Reuters, SAE, Autoblog, InsideEVs, Trucks.com, Car Talk, and other outlets. His first green-car media event was the launch of the Tesla Roadster, and since then he has been tracking the shift away from gasoline-powered vehicles and discovering the new technology’s importance not just for the auto industry, but for the world as a whole. Throw in the recent shift to autonomous vehicles, and there are more interesting changes happening now than most people can wrap their heads around. You can find him on Twitter or, on good days, behind the wheel of a new EV.