Millions to travel; gas prices moderating?

Millions of motorists intend to hit the road for Independence Day as gasoline pump prices moderated slightly nationally and in Nevada heading into the holiday weekend.

According to a AAA survey, 41 million people will travel 50 miles or more during the upcoming weekend, or 0.7 percent more than the same period in 2014, and the bulk of them will make trips in vehicles. Nationally, according to GasBuddy.com, the price of gasoline on Sunday was $2.78 per gallon at the pump, while in Nevada it was $3.19 a gallon.

Nationally that was down 1.3 cents in a week, while in Nevada it was a drop of 1.9 cents a gallon.

In Carson City, meanwhile, the gas price-monitoring website reported on Monday that the lowest price of $2.79 per gallon was posted at four capital community outlets: Costco, 700 Old Clear Creek Road; Country Store, 3389 U.S. Highway 50 East; Eagle Gas, 1360 S. Carson St., and JM Gasoline, 1321 N. Carson St.

Patrick DeHaan, the website petroleum analyst, said though the price nationally had “continued its slow retreat in the last week,” current events in Greece may have some bearing on the gas market heading direction going and into the July 4 holiday weekend. Despite that wild card regarding Greece’s credit woes and it impact on markets, DeHaan was neither spooked nor going out on any limbs.

“Regardless of Greece, I believe gas prices nationally will eke out a third straight weekly decline, though a negative outcome in the Greece situation stands to enhance the expected momentum” he said. “Just 11 states saw increases during the last week, leaving 39 that saw a decline -- a nice trend as we head towards July 4.”

The AAA travel outlook by the organization that used to call itself the American Automobile Association focused not only on the national impact during the approaching holiday weekend, but also on neighboring California.

“This upcoming Independence Day holiday weekend will bring out the highest number of travelers since 2010 as more than 4.8 million Californians are expected to travel 50 miles or more away from home for the first summer vacation of the year, AAA said in a news release. Of those, AAA projected, 3.8 million will go by car while more than a half million will use air travel and more than 400,000 other means to make trips.