regional differences – Memorial Day’s pre-weekend average hits $4.49 a gallon, but what drivers pay swings sharply by region—driven by refinery outages in the Midwest and Rocky Mountains, West Coast supply limits and state taxes, and Gulf Coast’s deeper refining capacity. Behind it
On May 18—the Monday before Memorial Day weekend—drivers weren’t just feeling the start of summer travel. They were feeling it at the pump. The national average for regular gasoline was $4.49 per gallon, up 42% ($1.32/gal) from the multi-year low price a year ago.
It is the highest average gasoline price for the Monday before Memorial Day weekend since 2022, when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine pushed crude oil prices higher. This year’s surge carries a different trigger, but a familiar mechanism: crude costs are again pulling retail prices with them.
Gasoline prices are higher than in February because crude oil prices have increased alongside the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The cost of crude oil typically accounts for about half of the retail gasoline price. Even with the jump, both retail gasoline prices and crude oil prices remain below those in May 2022.
Those global movements don’t land evenly across America. Regional prices reflect local supply and demand pressures, state fuel specifications, and state taxes—factors that can amplify crude’s effect or cushion it.
Midwest drivers saw one of the sharpest local contributors. Midwest retail gasoline prices averaged $4.40 per gallon on May 18, up 45% ($1.37/gal) from 2025. In that region, temporary refinery outages and refinery maintenance have contributed to price increases.
Illinois had major names behind the timing: Phillips 66’s 356. 000 barrel-per-day (b/d) Wood River refinery and Marathon Petroleum’s 253. 000 b/d Robinson refinery were offline for maintenance. In Indiana, BP’s 440,000 b/d Whiting refinery experienced a brief outage after a loss of power disrupted operations. Colorado faced its own disruption pattern: Suncor’s 117. 000 b/d Commerce City refinery started maintenance in March and then experienced a power outage causing an unplanned shutdown in May.
Up in the Rocky Mountain region, the average climbed to $4.59/gal on May 18, up 47% ($1.46/gal) from last year.
For many drivers, the most surprising gap comes from the West Coast—often the priciest place to buy gas. West Coast prices on May 18 averaged $5.61/gal, up 31% ($1.32/gal) compared with last year. Retail gasoline prices are usually the highest on the West Coast because the region has limited connections with other major refining centers. tight local supply and demand conditions. higher-than-average state taxes in several West Coast states. and gasoline specifications for California that make gasoline more costly to produce.
Even with those high prices, the underlying supply challenge is still shifting. West Coast gasoline imports continue to increase compared with previous years because of lower West Coast refinery capacity.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Gulf Coast. Retail gasoline prices there are usually the lowest because the region is home to more than half of U.S. refining capacity and has lower gasoline taxes than the national average. On May 18, Gulf Coast retail gasoline prices averaged $3.95/gal, up 42% ($1.17/gal) from last year.
The East Coast sits in the middle of the spread. With the most gasoline demand of the five regions, East Coast retail gasoline prices averaged $4.31/gal on May 18, up 44% ($1.32/gal) from last year.
The weekend ahead matters because Memorial Day is one of the biggest travel moments on the calendar. The American Automobile Association (AAA) expects 39.1 million people will travel by car over Memorial Day weekend this year, about the same as last year.
Crude markets are part of the reason this year feels tense. Crude oil is traded on global markets. and international prices feed into the cost of crude oil in the United States—even as the United States remains the world’s top crude oil producer. U.S. oil companies are active participants in global trade, exporting and importing crude oil to and from the United States.
As happened in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. retail gasoline prices increased rapidly this year because of substantially higher crude oil prices following geopolitical events. This time, the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz has limited crude and product supplies on global markets.
That pressure hasn’t gone unanswered. In response to the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. the United States is releasing crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a coordinated effort with the International Energy Agency. The United States is temporarily allowing nationwide sales of E15 gasoline. issuing waivers under the Jones Act to facilitate oil trade between U.S. ports, and relaxing federal enforcement of summer-grade gasoline standards with the aim of gasoline prices.
For drivers, though, the key story is simpler than policy language: the same weekend, the same country, and wildly different prices at the pump—driven by how global crude moves, and by how each region’s refineries, taxes, and fuel rules either absorb the shock or pass it straight through.
Memorial Day gasoline prices EIA regional gas prices crude oil Strait of Hormuz refinery outages Strategic Petroleum Reserve E15 Jones Act summer-grade gasoline standards