WASHINGTON – For two straight summers, motorists have seen gasoline prices soar past the $3-a-gallon mark nationwide.

And with prices at the pump going up steadily over the last two months to $2.80 a gallon last week, it seemed another such summer may be just ahead.

Maybe not.

The Energy Department said Tuesday in its summer fuel forecast that the recent sharp increase in gasoline prices is likely to ease off. And, it said, motorists can expect to find gasoline a few pennies cheaper this summer than last.

Not that the fuel’s going to be cheap.

The department said prices from the April through September period, including the busiest vacation travel months, should average $2.81 a gallon for regular grades nationwide. There will be regional differences and the West Coast always has higher prices.

But you may not want to wage a bet on that number.

Only a month ago, the government said it believed the cost of regular-grade gasoline would peak with a monthly average of $2.67 a gallon in June, a price already eclipsed last week when motorists paid on average $2.80 a gallon.

The latest forecast calls for prices to peak with an average $2.87 a gallon for the month of May and then decline. Last summer’s peak was an average of $2.98 for the month of July.

“We think the forecast is about on track,” said Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for AAA. He said based on current market trends he doesn’t see another summer with $3 gasoline across the country.

Prices have soared beyond $3 in each of the last two summers: During Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when the storm disrupted Gulf Coast supplies and last July when the Israeli invasion of Lebanon caused crude prices to spike to $76 a barrel with $3-plus gasoline quick to follow.