Michigan gas prices drop 15 cents a gallon ahead of Memorial Day travel surge
In the ups and downs of Michigan gas prices, this week they were down 15 cents a gallon, offering some much-desired relief at the pump for drivers concerned about inflation and recession warnings.
"Michigan drivers are seeing lower prices at the pump this week," said Adrienne Woodland, a spokeswoman for the Auto Club. "If demand stays low, alongside increasing gasoline stocks, motorists could continue to see gas prices decline."
Michiganders were paying an average of $3.06 a gallon on Sunday for regular unleaded, according to AAA. That was 6 cents a gallon less than a month ago and 59 cents less than a year ago.
In Michigan, the cities with the least expensive gas price averages were in Traverse City, $2.94 a gallon; Jackson, $2.95 and Flint, $2.98; and the most, in metro Detroit, $3.09; Marquette, $3.10, and Ann Arbor, $3.11.
The lower gas prices track with lower crude oil prices.
However, in terms of economic benefits, the two may offset each other.
Lower gas prices mean people are saving a few dollars and likely pay slightly less in the transportation costs of goods. The low oil prices will mean oil producers likely will be curbing spending and hiring, which would have a negative ripple effect on the economy.
What's more, gas prices also are nowhere near President Donald Trump's repeated, misleading claims of $1.98 a gallon — which is closer to what could be considered a wholesale price, a portion of the retail price — not what Americans are paying at the pump.
More: Gas in Michigan jumps 17 cents a gallon in a week, despite falling oil prices
Whether gas prices will continue to decline or edge up closer to Memorial Day likely depends on oil prices and demand.
Gasoline demand had decreased from 9.09 million barrels a day to 8.71 million barrels a day. Total domestic gasoline supply slightly increased from 225.5 million barrels to 225.7 million, according to the Energy Information Administration.
West Texas Intermediate, a grade of crude oil and one of the pricing benchmarks, has been trading below $60 a barrel, down from about $85 a barrel a year ago. Lower oil prices, combined with a slumping economy, often lead to reduced production.
AAA expects 1.3 million Michiganders will travel at least 50 miles from home during Memorial Day weekend, most of them by car, which would be an increase of 37,000 compared to last year — and the second highest on record.
Of those, 1.2 million will be going by car and 70,000 by plane.
Debbie Haas, a AAA vice president, said despite uncertainty, travel is a priority.
Nationally, AAA predicts more than 45 million will be traveling during the holiday weekend, which usually starts on Thursday and ends Monday, a day off from work for many.
The overwhelming majority of travelers, 39.4 million, are expected to drive.
On Sunday, the average national gas price was $3.14 a gallon.
The lowest state average for gas was $2.63 a gallon in Mississippi and the highest, $4.89 in California. However a report by a University of Southern California professor is forecasting it could reach $8 a gallon by 2026, based on the upcoming closures of regional refineries.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan gas prices drop ahead of Memorial Day weekend travel surge
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
10 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Trump Crypto-Wallet Spat Ends With World Liberty Buying Memecoin
Eric Trump signaled that the tension between the competing factions of Donald Trump's crypto empire has cooled and the family's World Liberty Financial will buy a 'substantial' amount of the memecoin at the center of the dispute. The president's son said in a post on X on Friday that the company responsible for the Trump memecoin isn't moving forward with a digital-wallet offering that has caused a fissure with World Liberty Financial, the crypto company owned in part by the Trump family.
Los Angeles Times
10 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
DOGE employees can search Social Security records, Supreme Court says
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the DOGE team that had been led by Elon Musk to examine Social Security records that include personal information on most Americans. Acting by a 6-3 vote, the justices granted an appeal from President Trump's lawyers and lifted a court order that had barred a team of DOGE employees of freely examining Social Security records. 'We conclude that, under the present circumstances,' the Social Security Administration, or SSA, 'may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,' the court said in an unsigned order. In a second order, the justices blocked the disclosure of DOGE operations as agency records that could be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The court's three liberals — Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — dissented in both cases 'Today, the court grants 'emergency' relief that allows the Social Security Administration (SSA) to hand DOGE staffers the highly sensitive data of millions of Americans,' Jackson wrote. 'The Government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now—before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE's access is lawful.' The legal fight turned on the unusual status of the newly created Department of Governmental Efficiency. This was a not true department, but the name given to the team of aggressive outside advisors led by Musk. Were the DOGE team members presidential advisors or outsiders who should be not given access to personal data? While Social Security employees are entrusted with the records containing personal information, it was disputed whether the 11 DOGE team members could be trusted with same material. Musk had said the goal was to find evidence of fraud or misuse of government funds. He and DOGE were sued by labor unions who said the outside analysts were sifting through records with personal information which was protected by the privacy laws. Unless checked, the DOGE team could create highly personal computer profiles of every person, they said. A federal judge in Maryland agreed and issued an order restricting the work of DOGE. U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander, Obama appointee, barred DOGE staffers from have accessing to the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans. But her order did not restrict the Social Security staff or DOGE employees from using data that did not identify persons or sensitive personal information. In late April, the divided 4th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to set aside the judge's order by a 9-6 vote. Judge Robert King said the 'government has sought to accord the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) immediate and unfettered access to all records of the Social Security Administration ('SSA') — records that include the highly sensitive personal information of essentially everyone in our country.' But Trump Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer appealed to the Supreme Court and said a judge should not 'second guess' how the administration manages the government. He said the district judge had 'enjoined particular agency employees — the 11 members of the Social Security Administration (SSA) DOGE team—from accessing data that other agency employees can unquestionably access, and that the SSA DOGE team will use for purposes that are unquestionably lawful. ... The Executive Branch, not district courts, sets government employees' job responsibilities.' Sauer said the DOGE team were seeking to 'modernize SSA systems and identify improper payments, for instance by reviewing swaths of records and flagging unusual payment patterns or other signs of fraud. The DOGE employees 'are subject to the same strict confidentiality standards as other SSA employees,' he said. Moreover, the plaintiffs 'make no allegation that the SSA DOGE team's access will increase the risk of public disclosure.' He said checking the personal data is crucial. 'For instance, a birth date of 1900 can be telltale evidence that an individual is probably deceased and should not still receive Social Security payments, while 15 names using the same Social Security number may also point to a problem,' he said.
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
DOGE can access sensitive Social Security records, Supreme Court rules
The Department of Government Efficiency can have unimpeded access to sensitive Social Security records for millions of people, the Supreme Court ruled Friday. The justices granted the Trump administration's emergency request to lift a lower-court order that had blocked a DOGE team assigned to the Social Security Administration from viewing or obtaining personal information in the agency's systems. The court's majority provided no detailed explanation for its ruling, but in a three-paragraph unsigned order, the majority wrote: 'We conclude that, under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work.' The three liberal justices dissented. In a 10-page dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the decision creates 'grave privacy risks for millions of Americans.' Trump administration lawyers claimed the DOGE team members needed unfettered access to Social Security's data in order to detect and halt fraudulent payments, but a federal judge in Maryland ruled that the breadth of DOGE's access violated federal law and put the data at risk of intentional or unintentional disclosure. The legal fight over DOGE's access to Social Security data is one of several that broke out in the early weeks of Trump's second term as the budget-slashing team overseen by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk fanned out across the federal government. In response to lawsuits, federal judges also limited DOGE access to sensitive databases at the Treasury and Education departments, as well as the Office of Personnel Management. Some of the restrictions have been eased over time as the Trump administration convinced the judges that adequate safeguards were in place to avoid disclosure of personal information. U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander, a Baltimore-based Obama appointee, blocked DOGE's access to Social Security's databases, which include tax and wage reports as well as retirement and disability payments. In her March ruling, she concluded that the access granted to the cost-cutting team violated the Privacy Act because agency officials did not show that it was necessary to include identifying information in order to carry out the search for fraudulent payments. Justice Department lawyers defending the move offered only 'cursory, circular statements' to justify the DOGE team's access, the judge said. However, Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court that the limits Hollander imposed interfered with President Donald Trump's ability to carry out his 'critically important' agenda to eliminate wasteful spending and update archaic systems at federal agencies. 'Employees charged with modernizing government information systems and routing [sic] out fraud, waste, and abuse in data systems plainly need access to those systems,' Sauer wrote. 'District courts should not be able to wield the Privacy Act to substitute their own view of the government's 'needs' for that of the President and agency heads.' In her dissent Friday, Jackson said the government had presented 'next to nothing' to explain what harm the DOGE operation or the Social Security Administration would suffer if the limits the lower-court ordered remained in place. The Biden-appointed justice also contended that her conservative colleagues were bending the court's usual standards to allow the Trump administration to pursue its favored course of action. 'It seems as if the Court has truly lost its moorings,' Jackson wrote, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. 'The Court is … unfortunately, suggesting that what would be an extraordinary request for everyone else is nothing more than an ordinary day on the docket for this Administration.' Justice Elena Kagan also dissented from the court's order, but did not provide any explanation of her views. Among the projects DOGE staffers were working on at Social Security was one targeting improper payments to dead people. Trump has frequently falsely claimed that large numbers of deceased people receive Social Security checks, including earlier this year during a high-profile address in March to a joint session of Congress. 'One person is listed at 360 years of age … More than 100 years older than our country,' Trump said. 'But we're going to find out where that money is going, and it's not going to be pretty.' Musk also made staggering claims, suggesting in a social media post that 20 million people over 100 years of age were receiving Social Security. However, computer experts said most of the outlandishly implausible ages were the product of a default setting in the 60-year-old COBOL programming language, which interprets incomplete or missing age data as the system's oldest possible date in 1875. Musk's term as a special government employee ended last week with Trump hosting an Oval Office send-off for the tech entrepreneur. While the pair were upbeat and complimentary there, Musk's escalating attacks on Trump's budget bill currently before Congress led to a spectacular flame-out of the relationship in recent days, with Trump threatening to cut government contracts to Musk's businesses and Musk accusing Trump of delaying the release of FBI records that could be embarrassing to him.
