Gas prices advertised at ScrubaDub in South Portland in April. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
For the first time since mid-April, the average price of regular gasoline in Maine dropped below $4 per gallon Tuesday.
AAA, the motor club that tracks gas prices nationwide, reported the average price of a gallon was $3.99 Tuesday and had fallen a bit more Wednesday, to $3.98. A year ago, a gallon of gas cost $3.12 in Maine.
One month ago, the average price of a gallon of gas in Maine hovered around $4.50, but oil prices have steadily fallen since the U.S. and Iran signed a preliminary agreement last Wednesday suspending their war and beginning a 60-day negotiation period.
Premium prices still sit just above $5, and diesel still costs $5.36 per gallon, but that’s down from $5.77 a month ago.
Gas prices ticked above $4 per gallon in April for the first time since 2022 amid continued threats toward Iran from President Donald Trump.
Oil markets appear to have responded with relief to the two-month, 14-point interim agreement that reopened the Strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic.
More than 30 vessels traveled through the strait on Tuesday, many of them oil tankers, the tracking firm Kpler reported, but that pales in comparison to the 120 to 140 ships that crossed the strait on an average day before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran in February.
Those attacks sent shockwaves through international oil and stock markets. When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil was blocked from travel.
But now, with the strait reopened, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a War Powers Resolution, a nonbinding rebuke of continued hostilities in Iran that may deter further U.S. strikes. All four members of Maine’s congressional delegation voted in favor of the resolution.
Trump has suggested the long-term negotiations with Iran, currently underway in Switzerland, are tenuous. In a Truth Social post Wednesday morning, he said that Iran imposing any fees on tankers crossing the strait would be cause for the end of negotiations. Israel and the Iranian-backed militia group Hezbollah ceased fighting last week amid concerns that continued hostilities could spell the end of the temporary peace agreement, but Israeli soldiers killed two people in Lebanon this week, testing the strength of their ceasefire.
Trump also criticized Sen. Susan Collins of Maine for voting for the war powers resolution, writing that she was one of “Four Republican Losers” to do so.
The national average price of gas dropped below the $4 per gallon threshold last week, just after the signing of the U.S.-Iran agreement. Maine’s gas prices rank 20th highest among the 50 states, according to AAA reports.
