If you were bracing yourself for the annual summer hike in gasoline prices, you can breathe a bit easier. That’s if Wave Dreher, a spokeswoman for AAA Colorado is correct in her prediction that gas prices won’t keep climbing after Memorial Day.

“We don’t expect to see it go up progressively throughout the summer,” she tells Boulder’s Daily Camera.

Prices are currently at an average of $2.74 a gallon in Colorado, and they could peak around $3, but not much higher, according to Dreher. The last time gas was more expensive than $3 a gallon was in 2007 and 2008 (actually, it almost hit $4 in ’08). A year ago, gas in Colorado was 50 cents cheaper, according to ColoradoGasPrices.com.

Yet, the relatively moderate AAA forecast comes as a surprise, given the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that has been gushing since April 20. But additional spikes have been offset because the per-barrel price of oil has been falling (now at $71, the lowest level since December) as traders fret about the global economic recovery, including debt in Greece, strengthening the dollar compared with the euro, according to Consumer Reports.