Gas Prices Hover Above $3.50 a Gallon for Memorial Day Weekend Travel

(KNSI) — For the 38 million plus drivers hitting the roads this Memorial Day weekend, they’ll have to contend with gas prices over $3.50 a gallon for regular unleaded.

AAA says the national average is now about $3.62 and climbing.

As for Minnesota, we’re hovering around $3.34, which is up around two cents higher than yesterday and a dime more than a week ago. A month ago, we were paying around $3.30. As high as that may seem, it’s 15 cents cheaper than a year ago.

The current average around St. Cloud is about $3.29, up a penny since yesterday and 20 cents more than a week ago, but 15 cents cheaper than a year ago.

President Joe Biden recently released a million barrels from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve in an effort to bring down gas prices. Today, the SPR sits at 368.8 million barrels. It has been depleted by roughly 41% in the last three years, hitting a low point of 346.76 million barrels in July of 2023, which was the lowest amount on record since 1983.

The SPR is the world’s largest publicly known stockpile of emergency petroleum and is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy. It was established primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out the country’s obligations under the international energy program after the international oil embargo in 1973/1974.

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