Gas prices that went up 11 cents a week ago fell 11 cents this week, ending up just where they started — at $3.03 a gallon for regular unleaded, good news for car owners.
“Michigan motorists are seeing lower gas prices across the state,” said Adrienne Woodland, spokeswoman for AAA, which tracks prices nationwide. “If gas demand drops, alongside robust stocks, pump prices may continue to fall.”
However, what happens to gas prices under a new president is difficult to predict.
Motorists are paying an average of $45 for a full 15-gallon tank of gasoline; down about $12 from 2024’s highest price last July. The price is 2 cents less than a month ago, but 8 cents more than this time a year ago.
Gasoline demand recently rose from 8.16 million barrels daily to 8.48 million, according to the Energy Information Administration. Meanwhile, total domestic gasoline stocks have soared from 231.4 million barrels to 237.7 million barrels.
Gasoline production had decreased, averaging 8.9 million barrels daily.
How much a change in presidential administrations and shift in oil will affect production — and prices — is challenging to predict. President Joe Biden had a much different energy policy than incoming President Donald Trump, who has promised to cut gas prices.
Biden moved last week to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, an obvious attempt to prevent the incoming administration from expanding offshore drilling, which Trump suggested he would do.
Biden used what he said was his authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.
More: Why Trump’s plan to ‘drill, baby, drill’ is unlikely to cut gas prices and fix inflation
“Drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear,” Biden said in a statement last week, adding that “the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country.”
Trump, however, said the same day that after he’s inaugurated, he plans to undo the ban, the Associated Press reported, adding the U.S. has “oil and gas at a level that nobody else has and we’re gonna take advantage of it. It’s really our greatest economic asset.”
Throughout the state Sunday, AAA said communities with the most expensive gas price averages were: Ann Arbor, $3.09; Metro Detroit, $3.08, and Jackson, $3.02. The least were Traverse City, $2.88; Lansing, $2.96, and Flint, $2.97.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan gas at $3 a gallon as Trump is set to take office