Planning on traveling for the holidays? Your road trip will be cheaper this year thanks to record levels of U.S. and Canadian oil production and reduced demand. Despite attacks from ISIS and continued unrest in the Middle East, increased crude output combined with lower demand have driven down the national gasoline average price to just over $2 per gallon for the first time since 2008.
According to AAA, U.S. energy consumers are spending $275 million less each day than they were this time last year. Lower gas prices mean that American consumers will have cash to put toward another present at Christmas or more groceries at Thanksgiving. The extra $275 million in the pockets of American consumers could actually purchase just under 12 million Thanksgiving turkeys!
Families traveling by car for the Thanksgiving holiday can expect to spend $43.88 for the average 500-mile round-trip road journey. This makes the trip over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house 28% cheaper than the cost of the same trip in 2014. In 2014, average trip costs were down 8.5% from the previous year.
*Calculations based off of average 500 mile round trip, average fuel economy of 24.1 mpg, and a national average gas price of $2.115 per gallon.
