Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer and the kickoff to the

summer driving season. AAA is forecasting that 44 million Americans are

hitting the road the second most since 2005, and for many the

getaway comes with a hefty gas price.

In this episode we talk with an industry expert about gas price trends and what Americans can expect heading into the summer.

I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Saturday, May 25th, and this is an extra edition of Morning

Wire. Joining us to discuss the cost of gas for your Memorial Day weekend and beyond is

Derek Morgan Executive Vice vice president at Heritage

and former senior VP for American fuel

and petrochemical manufacturers.

Derek, thanks for coming on.

Of course, my pleasure.

Appreciate the work you all do.

So we've seen gas prices fluctuate over the past few years. First, what is the average cost for a gallon of gas right now and what's driving it?

Nationwide, the average is about $3.60 a gallon and that really is a combination of things.

Crude oil price is over half of that.

The next biggest factor would be refining costs. Then after that you have taxes at full

15% of the price on average nationwide of course that's higher in some states and

then distributioning marketing is about 10%. So all in all 360 that's about an increase of 50%

over when Joe Biden took office. Where are we seeing the highest costs and what's behind

the differences in various regions and cities? Yeah the highest cost is almost always the so it's not easily able to be supplied from other places in the country and so

California typically has the highest prices you know along with Hawaii and a few

...