North Carolina has the lowest gas prices in the country. Some say it's still too high

More than a week after North Carolina lawmakers voted to suspend the gas tax, the state now has the lowest gas prices on average in the entire country.

Several people WRAL spoke with on Sunday still aren't satisfied.

“They're still high. Still a lot of money out of my paycheck," gas station customer Hayden Epperson said.

As of Sunday, a gallon of unleaded gas in Raleigh costs an average of $3.62, nearly 35 cents cheaper than a week ago. A gallon of diesel in Raleigh costs $5.62, about 28 cents cheaper than a week ago.

However, it wasn't lost on Epperson just how much lower prices were one year ago. On Oct. 18, 2025, gas cost $2.78 and diesel cost $3.52.

"It's ridiculous. It takes half a tank to get to work. A half tank to get back. And it's not good," Epperson said.

The high costs aren't just affecting commuters driving more than 30 minutes to get to work. Lisa Penny, a farmer's wife who grows produce in Benson, said the high diesel prices are capping off a difficult year for farming.

"Having to buy diesel in bulk has been very, very strenuous and made it hard for us as farmers to keep all the pricing for all of our produce at a low cost," Penny said.

While the gas tax suspension was signed into law on Friday, Oct. 9, it didn't start until days later. Many faced the same prices for days after it was signed. Petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said there could be a few reasons why.

"It's hard to lower the prices immediately when stations already paid a much higher price for the fuel that's in their tanks," De Haan said. "It takes a few days for them for stations to sell through their existing taxed inventory before they're able to buy the non-taxed fuel. That's why it's taken about a week to to kind of fully realize the the tax suspension."

>> In Depth: Answering your questions about North Carolina's gas tax suspension

De Haan said a common misunderstanding about the gas tax he noticed is that gas should be exactly 41 cents lower since the tax suspension was signed into law, but he warned the tax suspension is only one small factor in the price people pay for fuel.

"The tax is suspended, but that doesn't freeze the price of oil from suddenly going up," De Haan said. "The price of oil is moving every day and in the last week it's actually gone up fairly noticeably. This is one of the rare times in my career where beyond a few days out, it's impossible to predict because it's it's not about normal market ebbs and flows right now.

De Haan added that the ongoing war with Iran makes prices extremely volatile, and it's possible they may shoot up again even with the tax out of the picture.

"It's about geopolitical tensions and developments that can happen at a moment's notice," De Haan added. "It depends on what's going on between the US and Iran and Ukraine and Russia."

The gas tax is set to go back in effect December 1.