(The Center Square) – Forecast to take weeks not days for significant movement, a modicum of relief for traditional transportation energy prices has blown in with North Carolina’s weekend pollen.
Monday’s average price statewide for a gallon of unleaded gasoline, according to AAA, was $3.89. That’s down from $3.90 a day earlier, $3.94 on Thursday and $3.93 on Wednesday – the day after an 11th hour ceasefire was announced between Iran, America and Israel.
The United States and the Israelis on Feb. 28 launched military strikes. Iran, with control of the Strait of Hormuz, has stymied an otherwise one-sided confrontation.
Fuel prices have risen since.
At the fuel app GasBuddy on Monday afternoon, there was one sub-$3 report in Carthage and multiple reports of $3.49.
The price of diesel hit a statewide daily average record high of $5.81 on Tuesday of last week. Seven days later, it was at $5.76.
Nationally, Monday’s averages per AAA were $4.12 for a gallon of unleaded and $5.65 for diesel.
Second-term Republican President Donald Trump has said energy costs are a “very small price to pay” in comparison to neutralizing Iran’s threat to America and securing long-term worldwide security. Americans, according to polls, have mixed opinion short of full agreement.
Monday represented Day 45 of Operation Epic Fury. A day before it started, the statewide norm for unleaded was about $2.75.
For context, since the COVID-19 era, the state’s highs are $4.67 for unleaded on June 13, 2022, and had been $5.76 for diesel on June 10, 2022.
Combustion engine consumers make up more than 8 million vehicle registrations in the nation’s ninth-largest state.
North Carolina’s electric vehicle charging rate average, according to AAA, is 40.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. The national average is 41.7 cents per kWh. More than 100,000 zero-emission vehicles are registered in the state. At the start of 2025, the state norm was 33.5 cents per kWh and the national was 34.7 cents per kWh.
Twenty states have lower average prices for a gallon of unleaded; 30 are lower for diesel; and 19 plus the District of Columbia are lower in electric.
Among the 14 major metro areas, the least expensive average for unleaded gas is in the Jacksonville area at $3.82. The most expensive is in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area at $3.95.
Diesel is the most consumer-friendly ($5.56) in the Asheville market.
North Carolina’s 41 cents per gallon tax rate for 2026 is only less than California (61.2), Pennsylvania (57.6), Washington (55.4), Michigan (52.4), New Jersey (49.1), Illinois (48.3) and Maryland (46).
Motor fuel taxes in the state fund the Department of Transportation’s highway and multi-modal projects, accounting for more than half of the state transportation resources. The revenues go into the Highway Fund and the Highway Trust Fund.
