Filling up the tank for one last summer road trip over the Labor Day weekend has never cost more in the United States.

Heading into the holiday, the average price of regular gasoline stood at $4.14 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club — nearly a dollar higher than a year ago and well above the previous Labor Day weekend record of $3.82 set in 2012 (AAA).

Nicole Collins had planned to drive from Philadelphia to South Carolina to visit friends, but she said her family has stayed close to home for most of the summer, skipping their usual weekend trips because driving has become so expensive.

"Gas is pretty high right now. It doesn't help that we also have a baby, so we also have to pay for that," Collins said outside a gas station in Claymont, Delaware, where regular gas was selling for $4.199 a gallon.

Prices surged after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February and have not settled down since. Crude oil traffic through the key Strait of Hormuz has plunged, and Iran has refused to reopen the waterway (AP). The strait, a narrow chokepoint between Iran and Oman, is one of the world's most important oil shipping routes, which is why disruptions there ripple into fuel prices far beyond the region.

"Everything points to the Iran War and the Strait of Hormuz," said Tom Seng, a professor of energy finance at Texas Christian University.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright offered few specifics on when the nation's drivers might see relief at the pump, while acknowledging that prices are higher now than they were over Labor Day 2025.

"Yes, they're higher today, but we're doing everything we can to push them down," Wright said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

The national average for regular gasoline remains well below the all-time record of $5.02 a gallon set in June 2022. Diesel, however, is a different story: it hit a national average of $5.85 a gallon on Friday, an all-time high (AP).

Trucks and other freight delivery systems consume large amounts of diesel, and that increased transportation cost is being passed on to consumers — whether at the grocery store or through package delivery services. That makes the diesel record a signal of broader inflationary pressure, since diesel is the fuel that moves most of the goods Americans buy.

"It doesn't really seem like there's an end to it," Collins said.

Gasoline prices typically decline as the summer driving season ends and refineries switch to producing a cheaper winter blend. But Seng noted that this year there are additional factors beyond the volatile situation in the Middle East that make future prices unpredictable. U.S. refineries are operating at 98% capacity, many of them enduring the unusually harsh Texas heat. If problems arise there, or a hurricane knocks some systems offline, prices will struggle to fall. The heart of the U.S. refining industry sits along the Gulf Coast, a region regularly exposed to hurricanes, which is why storm season adds an annual layer of risk to fuel supplies.

Nor is it solely a Middle East problem. Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries are squeezing diesel supplies, and Chinese refiners are also seeing declining output, said Matthew Metzgar, a clinical professor of economics at UNC Charlotte.

"There's just less gasoline coming out of those refineries," Metzgar said.

Wright said the Trump administration was taking steps to increase production and that markets forecast lower prices in the coming months.

"If you look at the futures prices, if you wanted to buy today in bulk gasoline for two months out in November, it's about $0.35 cheaper than it is today. So the marketplace thinks gasoline prices are going to move meaningfully lower," he said.

Geopolitically, though, there is little an individual driver can do to bring down gas prices. Metzgar noted that using price apps can help save a little money, especially on long trips, where gas sold by the interstate can be 10 to 15 cents per gallon more expensive than at stations a short drive down the road.

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Associated Press videojournalist Mingson Lau and reporter Gary Fields contributed. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.