Leaf-peepers are flocking to see New England's brilliant fall colors

MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — New England leaf-watching season is in full swing, as people from as far as Florida and Berlin flock to the region for scenic drives, train rides and bus tours to soak in the splendid hues of red, orange and bronze. With quaint towns and covered bridges scattered through swaths of changing forest, the rural Northeast provides an ideal setting to view nature's annual show.

"Leaf-peeping is one of the most accessible tourism things that you can do," said Teddy Willey, the general manager of the Frog Rock Tavern in Meredith, New Hampshire. “You don’t have to have the athleticism to be a hiker, you don’t have to have the money to own a boat.”

You just need to be able to jump in a car and head north, he said.

The Associated Press livestreamed the colorful landscape on Tuesday.

“Once you’re there, you just take it in," Willey said.

He spoke just after his tavern was flooded with tourists from Indiana who had stepped off a sightseeing bus.

Among them was Vicky Boesch, of Fort Wayne, who had made the trip with her sisters.

“We came out to the Northeast to see the beautiful foliage and the colorful leaves,” she said, adding the she was impressed with Vermont.

“The leaves were very pretty on the mountains because the sun was out yesterday, and so that makes them pop more,” she said.

It wasn't only the fall colors that provided a contrast with Indiana, she said, but also the region's distinctive architecture, lakes and towns.

Gordon Cochran, of Lake View, Iowa, said he was in New Hampshire to visit his daughter and had a “beautiful ride” on the slow-moving Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad.

Weather conditions associated with climate change have disrupted some recent leaf-peeping seasons. One problem is that global warming has brought drought that causes leaves to turn brown and wither before they can reach their colorful peak.

Willey acknowledges that he's not a leaf guy.

“Personally, no. I grew up here, so I think it loses its luster a little bit,” he said with a chuckle, adding that the season still has its moments.

"I’ll be driving somewhere around the Lakes Region, and all of a sudden, you're like, ‘You know what, there’s a reason why people come here and there’s a reason I live here. It really is quite beautiful,’” he said, referring to a scenic part of eastern New Hampshire.

A maple tree displays its fall color on the Vermont Statehouse lawn in Montpelier, Vt., on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)

The leaves start to change by the canal under the Chestnut Street bridge in Lewiston, Maine, on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/ Patrick Whittle)

Fall colors are displayed on Loon Mountain near Lincoln, N.H., Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Nick Perry)

A sheep walks through pasture at Shaker Village where hardwood trees are showing their fall colors, Tuesday, October. 15, 2024, in New Gloucester, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A maple tree shows its fall colors, Tuesday, October. 15, 2024, in New Gloucester, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The leaves start to change by the canal under the Chestnut Street bridge in Lewiston, Maine, on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/ Patrick Whittle)

Fall foliage and fallen leaves are seen a back road in Marshfield, Vt., Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)

Fall colors are displayed on Loon Mountain near Lincoln, N.H, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Nick Perry)

Fall colors are displayed on Loon Mountain near Lincoln, N.H., Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Nick Perry)

Trees changing to Autumn colors surround the Middle Covered Bridge, which spans the Ottauquechee River, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Woodstock, Vt. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Leaves display bright colors near Lake Waukewan, in Meredith, N.H., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Leaves display bright colors, in Meredith, N.H., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Birds rest on Lake Waukewan near a tree with changing colors, in Meredith, N.H., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Leaves display bright colors near Lake Waukewan, in Meredith, N.H., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Leaves on trees display bright colors as people using water craft float on Meredith Bay, in Meredith, N.H., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A fly fisherman paddles on a pond as fall foliage begins to show color in Campton, N.H., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

A fly fisherman paddles on a pond as fall foliage begins to show color in Campton, N.H., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

A fly fisherman paddles on a pond as fall foliage begins to show color in Campton, N.H., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

Fall foliage begins to show color in Campton, N.H., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

A fly fisherman paddles on a pond as fall foliage begins to show color in Campton, N.H., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Eight members of the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries decided Thursday to put off increasing oil production as they face weaker than expected demand and competing production from non-allied countries — factors that could keep oil prices stagnant into next year.

The OPEC+ members decided at an online meeting to postpone by three months production increases that had been scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The plan had been to start gradually restoring 2.2 million barrels per day over the course of 2025. That process will now be pushed back until October 2026.

OPEC+, which includes Saudi Arabia as the dominant member of the OPEC producers’ cartel, and Russia as the leading non-OPEC member in the 22-country alliance, have imposed several sets of cuts to agreed output to support prices.

Oil prices have been slack due to weaker than expected demand from China as well as increased production from countries like Brazil and Argentina that aren’t in OPEC+.

Among the beneficiaries of the current state of the oil market are U.S. motorists, who have seen gasoline prices fall to their lowest in 2 1/2 years to near $3 a gallon.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Members of the OPEC + alliance of oil exporting countries will decide Thursday whether to put off plans to pump more crude amid sluggish demand and competing production from non-allied countries -- factors that could keep oil prices stagnant into next year.

Key beneficiaries of that would be U.S. motorists, who have seen gasoline prices fall to their lowest in 2 1/2 years to near $3 a gallon.

OPEC+, which includes Saudi Arabia as the dominant member of the OPEC producers' cartel, and Russia as the leading non-OPEC member in the 22-country alliance, is holding an online meeting over whether to put off production increases that are scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

Eight OPEC+ members planned to start increasing production from Jan. 1 by gradually restoring 2.2 million barrels per day in previous production cuts. Analysts now say the group could postpone production increases for another three months as it monitors demand.

Oil prices have been slack due to weaker than expected demand from China as well as increased production from countries like Brazil and Argentina that aren't in OPEC+. Oil analysts have been busy reducing their estimates for demand for next year, meaning that OPEC+ could remain in a bind well into 2025.

The Saudis need oil revenue to carry out Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s ambitious plans to diversify his country’s economy, including the development of Neom, a $500 billion futuristic city in the desert. For Russia, oil export revenues are a key pillar of state finances and funding for the war against Ukraine. Holding back production risks losing market share. Yet increasing production and sales could lower prices in a global economy that analysts say is already well supplied with oil.

U.S. oil has been stuck around $70 per barrel and traded at $68.92 on Thursday ahead of the meeting, down from $80 in August. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $72.66 per barrel, down from around $80 in July.

One result of those slack prices is that U.S. average pump prices for gasoline fell to $3.03 a gallon this week, the lowest since May, 2021 and well down from their record peak of $5.02 from June, 2022, according to motoring club AAA.

Thirty-one U.S. states now have average gas prices below $3 a gallon.

U.S. oil price levels of $70 or less “are great for consumers,” said AAA spokesman Andrew Gross. Crude oil makes up about half the price of a gallon of gasoline, making crude the key factor on top of distribution costs and taxes. Motorists in Europe see far smaller fluctuations because taxes make up a much bigger chunk of the cost.

OPEC has cut its forecast for 2025 demand growth to 1.54 million barrels per day, from 1.85 million barrels per day in July. That is at the high end of estimates compared to those from the International Energy Agency at 990,000 barrels per day, U.S. Energy Information Administration at 1.22 million and energy intelligence firm Rystad Energy at 1.1 million.

Analysts at Commerzbank foresee Brent prices averaging $75 per barrel in the first quarter of next year and $80 for the remaining three quarters.

In the United States, Donald Trump’s return to the White House will likely lead to more fossil fuel production. Not only has the President-elect campaigned on more drilling, but his Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent has put together an economic plan with the goal of increasing domestic oil production by the equivalent of 3 million barrels a day. Bessent has indicated that the additional oil production would reduce inflationary pressures for U.S. consumers. But the Trump team has not fully outlined why oil producers would ramp up supplies and lower prices to levels that could hurt their profits.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. It has since expanded to 12 member countries. In 2016, largely in response to dramatically falling oil prices due to U.S. shale oil output, OPEC signed an agreement with 10 other oil-producing countries to create OPEC+.

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Josh Boak contributed from Washington DC.

This version corrects that the number of countries in the OPEC+ alliance is 22, not 23.

FILE -The logo of the Organization of the Petroleoum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is seen outside of OPEC's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, March 3, 2022. A street sign that says „one way" is positioned below the logo. (AP Photo/Lisa Leutner, File)