Will Alabama gas prices continue to soar? Local expert weighs in

With spring break travel on the horizon, Alabama gas prices are on our mind. If you’ve noticed those prices starting to inch up over the past few weeks, you’re not alone. Will prices continue to soar, or will we get a break soon? Clay Ingram of AAA Alabama weighs in.

Alabama gas prices—2022 trends so far

This one hurts. Alabama gas prices have gone up $0.30/gallon (on average) over the past month. That’s right, according to Ingram, the average price per gallon was $3.06 last month, and the Alabama average today is $3.36/gallon.

At this time last year, our state average was only $2.46/gallon, and below $2.00/gallon back in 2020. Ingram reminds us that yearly comparisons (especially against 2020) are not entirely accurate due to the plummeting demand of gas in 2020-21. With everyone working from home during the pandemic lockdown, we simply didn’t see the standard demand for gas. Speaking of demand…

Are international events impacting prices?

Ingram shared that gas prices are incredibly dependent on supply and demand. There has been concern that the crisis in Ukraine and corresponding sanctions will have an impact on our supply. According to Ingram, it’s too soon to say. He says we’ll need to continue to see how the events unfold, but at this point, this can only be attributed to a few cents of increase (if any).

The main culprit, he says, is the typical increase in demand we see at this time of year. As folks head on their spring break travels or flee to the beach with warmer weather, demand for gas skyrockets (then price follows right behind).

Our future outlook is looking…expensive. He thinks that Alabama’s increased demand during spring/summer travel seasons plus potential for supply issues puts us in store for steadily increasing gas prices over the next few months.

How to find the cheapest Alabama gas prices

Want to make sure you’re only stopping at the cheapest stations? Good news, there’s an app for that. The AAA app is completely free, and updated daily with each gas station’s prices. This allows consumers to “price shop,” something Ingram says can be extremely helpful for getting statewide prices down.

“Price shopping not only saves you money on a tank of gas today, but it also puts downward pressure on our gas prices by generating some competition in the marketplace. If we have enough people participating in price shopping behavior, then [gas stations] have to start competing for our business by lowering their prices. Right now, we’re not doing that, we’re buying gas based on convenience rather than price. And that’s just a license for gas companies to mark these prices up higher and higher.”

—Clay Ingram, Public Relations and Marketing Manager, AAA Alabama 

Find the AAA app in the App Store and Google Play Store.

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