Time for a holiday

For the past two Fourth of July holidays, Jessica Jackson and her family have cut travel costs, settling on backyard barbecues.

Not this time.

The Post Falls woman plans to travel to Seattle for the weekend to visit relatives and maybe even have some fun on the water.

"The economy has made it difficult to travel on the Fourth," Jackson said on Wednesday while getting gas. "But we figure it's time before the kids get too old."

Both gas prices and the weather are predicted to be stable this weekend.

"It may be a little cooler, but I don't see much of a chance for rain other than maybe a stray shower," said climatologist Cliff Harris, adding that he expects Sunday to be in the mid-70s and Monday the low 80s.

"There's one little system coming in (today) and Friday that's taking its sweet time, but that should be out of the way Saturday and Sunday."

Harris said fireworks gazers may want to take jackets as the temperatures could drop into the 60s at night.

Gas prices are higher than a year ago - the average price in Coeur d'Alene on Wednesday was $2.87 compared to $2.65 a year ago and $2.90 in Post Falls versus $2.78 last year - but AAA expects them to be settled heading into the holiday despite volatile oil prices and the European debt crisis, said AAA Idaho Spokesman Dave Carlson.

"The good news for the moment is that pump prices are fairly stable and shouldn't move dramatically higher for the holiday," Carlson said.

The Coeur d'Alene price is 7 cents more than it was a month ago, while Post Falls is unchanged.

The average Idaho price was $2.90 on Wednesday and the nationwide average was $2.76. That gap has closed only a little in the past few weeks.

AAA said it expects people such as Jackson to be a part of a 19 percent increase in travel from Idaho and other Western states.

Higher gas prices notwithstanding, AAA and Boston-based consultant IHS Global Insights also expect Idahoans will take longer trips. Thirty-seven percent of travelers in the region will travel between 400 and 700 miles during the holiday. For the rest of the country, just 17 percent of travelers will travel that far.

"Within our own borders, motorists will find a large range of pump prices," Carlson said. "That may say something about the level and intensity of regional competition among retailers."

Northwest gas consumption is up despite the recession and a decade-long decline, according to an annual report released on Wednesday by the Seattle-based nonprofit Sightline Institute.

Idaho drivers - already the highest per-capita consumers in the region - led the Northwest by increasing their gasoline purchases by nearly 4 percent in 2009 compared to 2008, according to the report.

Washington and Oregon saw per capita increases of less than 1 percent, which is a departure from the states' nearly uninterrupted decline since 1999.

The increases are surprising since the economy remained stalled during 2009 and they buck a nationwide trend of declining gas use.

"It looks like the real culprit in increased gasoline consumption was lower prices," said Eric de Place, senior researcher for Sightline Institute and author of the report.

While gas use went up last year, consumption of diesel, a fuel related to trucking and other commercial activity, dropped 10 percent in the Northwest, according to the report.