The cost of fuel should not be an issue for anyone with travel plans by car over the holiday weeks. The average prices for a gallon of regular gasoline was $1.80 for drivers in Louisiana.

According to one expert that average  price is about .50 cents lower than it was this time last year. In fact, if you do the math you will find that most of us saved about $700 in fuel spending over the course of this past year. Of course those lower gas prices did come with a cost. That cost is the loss of many oil and gas jobs in Louisiana.

Greg Laskoski is a spokesperson for Gasbuddy.com. That's a website you can use to find the lowest gas prices in your particular home town. Laskoski told the Louisiana Radio Network that you should be expecting a slight increase in gas prices in the beginning of 2016.

Unfortunately the party does come to an end. The annual requirement by the federal government calling for summer blend gasoline, that’s really what pushes up prices in the first quarter of every new year.

The seasonal switch of gasoline blends is mandated by the Federal Government and the bi-annual change over usually affects the prices of fuel for a few weeks during the times of transition.

That doesn't mean  you can't find really cheap fuel across the country right now.

It’s really extraordinary to see these numbers. I can tell you that you’re close to the lowest price in the country. We saw that yesterday at $1.39, that was in Kansas.

Laskoski says the lowest prices he has noticed in Louisiana was $1.57 a gallon. That was at several stations in the Baton Rouge area.  In Lafayette the lowest price we noted was $1.61. In Shreveport we saw an even lower price of $1.59. Lake Charles lowest price was listed as $1.59 as well.   He also noted that many retailers were selling fuel well below the state average price of $1.80 per gallon.

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