EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – As people hit the road to visit family for Thanksgiving, prices at the pump are up again in El Paso, after going down over the past month.
El Paso gas prices dropped by 20 cents on average per gallon over the past month according to AAA but rose again Thanksgiving week, with the average price per gallon being $3.24 on Wednesday.
“It’s the highest gas price average of the 27 cities or metros that are surveyed by triple a in the state of Texas,” said Daniel Armbruster the Spokesperson for AAA Texas and New Mexico.
Armbruster says the average price per gallon in Las Cruces on Wednesday was $3.50 which has gone down two cents over the last week but has gone up about 9 cents in the last month.
El Pasoan Armando Rojas filled up his tank before heading to Dallas with his family for Thanksgiving, saying it’s costing him a lot more per to fill up.
“Probably like 25 dollars extra,” said Rojas.
Another traveler, Enedina Deharo, just passed through El Paso but stopped to get gas on her way to Mexico from California for Thanksgiving.
“We thinking this is the last time we’re driving honestly,” said Enedina Deharo.
Saying she paid more in California than she did in El Paso for a tank of gas, but that the trip overall was expensive.
“Maybe like three or four hundred dollars,” said Deharo.
According to AAA, 3.6 million Texans will drive to their Thanksgiving holiday destinations this year.
“That’s an increase of 8 percent over 2020 and a 4 percent drop from 2019, so not quite back to 2019 levels but it’s gotten pretty close,” said Armbruster.
With more people traveling and high gas prices, President Biden announced the release of the U.S. Oil Reserves to combat the high gas prices.
However, Armbruster says we won’t see impacts from the oil reserves before Thanksgiving or even Christmas.
“The strategic petroleum reserve the oil that comes from that likely won’t be on the market until around the beginning of the new year so that really hasn’t had an impact on the prices yet, it is expected that they will help bring down the prices a little bit,” said Armbruster.
One El Paso driver summed the traveling holiday this way:
“I’ve got family somewhere in other places so I would be traveling, but gas prices, they just won’t let you,”
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