Howell, Michigan, May 12, 2026, 07:02 EDT
- Michigan regular gasoline averaged $4.711 a gallon on Tuesday, above the U.S. average of $4.504, AAA data showed.
- AAA expects 39.1 million Americans to drive over Memorial Day, keeping pump prices in focus before the summer travel season.
- President Donald Trump backed a federal gas-tax suspension, but Congress would have to approve it.
Livingston County drivers looking for cheaper gasoline are doing it in a tighter market, with Michigan pump prices still running above the national average and Washington now weighing a temporary federal gas-tax break.
The local question — where to find the lowest nearby price — has become more urgent as AAA’s Tuesday data put Michigan regular gasoline at $4.711 a gallon, compared with $4.504 nationally. AAA said county averages are updated daily, while its Michigan diesel average stood at $6.000, near the state’s recorded high of $6.013 on May 4.
The timing matters. AAA said 45 million Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles over Memorial Day, including 39.1 million by car, even with pump prices at their highest since the summer of 2022. “Travel demand remains strong,” Stacey Barber, AAA Travel vice president, said in the group’s release. AAA Newsroom
A Livingston Daily item, also carried by AOL, pointed readers toward online tools for finding the best local gasoline prices in Livingston County, saying Michigan’s high prices had made the search more important for motorists. GasBuddy says its station-finder service lets users search for cheaper nearby fuel and has handled more than 900 million searches.
Trump told CBS News he wanted to suspend the federal gas tax “for a period of time,” saying prices should be allowed to fall before the tax phases back in. The federal levy is an excise tax — a per-gallon charge — of 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel, CBS reported. CBS News
That would be relief, but not much against the full jump. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, wrote that the “Iran war premium” — the extra cost he attributes to the conflict’s effect on oil markets — was adding roughly $1.35 a gallon, far more than the federal gasoline tax. The Telegraph
Oil is the larger pressure point. Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose as high as $105.50 a barrel on Monday after Trump rejected Iran’s response to a U.S. peace proposal, before settling at $103.50, the Guardian reported. Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said “severe supply constraints” were likely to continue. The Guardian
For Michigan and the broader Great Lakes region, wholesale gasoline is also a risk. Wholesale gasoline — the price paid before retail markups and taxes — was four cents below its late-April peak on Monday, and De Haan said regional price cycles could start “today and tomorrow,” with regular fuel possibly pushing toward $4.60 by week’s end. Midland Daily News
The tax proposal faces another hurdle: Congress. The Guardian reported that suspending the tax would require legislative action and that Republican lawmakers said they would introduce bills after Trump’s remarks. The same report said the levy raises about $500 million a week for the federal government, money tied to transport funding.
For Livingston County motorists, the practical split is clear. AAA offers daily averages by state, metro and county ranges, while GasBuddy focuses on station-level searches that can show cheaper pumps nearby. The tools are not the same, but both now matter more for drivers deciding whether to fill up in Howell, Brighton, Pinckney or on a longer run outside the county.
The downside is volatility. A tax pause could fail in Congress, and even if it passes, crude oil and regional wholesale costs may erase part of the benefit before drivers see it at the pump.
