AAA forecasts the national average will peak between $3.60 and $3.80 in the spring, then drop to between $3.20 and $3.40 by mid-summer. It will rise again during the hurricane season along the Gulf Coast, the nation's oil-refining hub, before moving lower toward the end of the year.
It's that up-and-down movement that will dictate drivers' moods. Drivers tend to remember what they paid for their last fill-up — not that they may have paid a little less a year ago, Hamilton said.
"People have a short reference point," he said.
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Jonathan Fahey can be reached at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey .
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