WACO, Texas (KXXV) — The summer travel season is about to begin, but what do these recent tariffs from the White House mean for your plans and gas prices?
President Trump’s tariff war on other countries has caused market insecurities in recent weeks and months.
Some experts believe that has dropped the price of crude oil and companies, refineries and airlines are taking advantage of it.
Tom Seng Ed. D. is an assistant professor of energy finance at the Ralph Lowe Institute at the Neeley School of Business with Texas Christian University and believes lower gas prices could be seen throughout the Summer.
“We now have low prices for oil for May, June, July, August, September, and the fact that you have those low oil prices right now the wholesale gasoline market is also lower for that same time-frame," he said.
He added, “unless the tariff situation changes, we’ll probably continue to see these lower prices.”
We asked, “but if demand rises then those prices are gonna have to go up?”
Tom said, “could be exactly right.”
Some analysts believe gas prices could even hit record-breaking levels.
Daniel Armbruster is with AAA's Texas/New Mexico region and said, “most market analysts, and this could change Bobby, but thus far, even with the tariffs and the continuation of the war in Ukraine, 2025 is expected to be the cheapest year for gas prices since 2021. So certainly things can change .”
So let’s take a look at gas prices from 2021.
Reports from different sources that we found showed that some of the cheaper gas prices ranged from $2.42 to $2.73 to $2.86.
This isn’t much different from what we’re seeing now, as AAA said the average price for regular gas in Texas is $2.82 as of Thursday.
The U.S. does get a lot of oil from other countries such as Canada and Mexico, according to AAA. During our conversation, Daniel said that if we were to feel any potential negative impacts from tariffs, drivers in Northern and Midwestern states are likely to feel it more than Texans as Texas is more "insulated" due to its proximity to the oil and gas industry.
He said this typically allows Texas and other Southern states to have cheaper gas prices than other parts of the country.
Bambi Eskew with Allen Samuels House of Travel — a full service travel agency in Waco — said it's unclear what the tariffs could mean for travel expenses right now. She and other travelers question how tariffs could impact the relationships that the United States fosters with other countries,
With this in mind, she said the agency is still seeing a 20-25% increase in bookings and people traveling for the Summer compared to this time last year.
Bambi encourages travelers to book that trip because you never know what might happen next.
“You lock in your prices, lock in your dates, make sure you got everything you want done" she said.
Tariffs or not, Bambi isn’t changing her travel plans and said, “I think we can live every day being a little bit worried but I think we just have to live our lives the way we fill comfortable and travel’s what’s great for me.”
