The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline shot up a whopping 79 cents over the past two weeks to a record-setting $4.43 per gallon (3.8 liters) as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is contributing to already-high prices at the pump.
Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday the new price exceeds by 32 cents the prior all-time high of $4.11 set in July 2008. But that’s still quite a ways from the inflation-adjusted record high of about $5.24 per gallon.
The price at the pump is $1.54 higher than it was a year ago.
Lundberg said gas prices are likely to remain high in the short term as crude oil costs soar amid global supply concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prices at the pump were rising long before Russia invaded Ukraine as post-lockdown demand has pushed prices higher. Crude prices plummeted in early 2020 as economies around the world shut down because of COVID-19 — the price of futures even turned negative, meaning some sellers were paying buyers to take oil. Prices rebounded, however, as demand recovered faster than producers pulled oil out of the ground and inventories dried up.
Then, the price increase accelerated after war began.
Energy prices are also contributing to the worst inflation that Americans have seen in 40 years, far outpacing higher wages.
Nationwide, the highest average price for regular-grade gas is in the San Francisco Bay Area, at $5.79 per gallon. The lowest average is in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at $3.80 per gallon.
According to the survey, the average price of diesel also spiked, up $1.18 over two weeks, to $5.20 a gallon. Diesel costs $2.11 more than it did one year ago.
(AP)
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3 Responses
GAS PRICES AT RECORD HIGH-
BIDEN’S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT SO FAR.
The reality is the price per barrel of crude is at some of it’s lowest prices. Oil company profits are sky rocketing, even with the millions they get in subsidies. It appears to me that pump prices are profiteering/scalping. Of course this is all dependent on the average American remaining clueless as to how crude and fuel prices are determined. Of course it’s easier to blame the president who has nothing to do with establishing those prices.
“ON TARGET” is off target, again. He is among the mistaken people who think the rise in gasoline prices is the work of Biden. If it were, gasoline prices would not be rising at the same rate throughout the world, but they are. Biden’s greatest achievement so far might be holding together such a strong alliance supporting economic sanctions against the murderous Russian autocrat so admired by the American wanna-be autocrat. The Russian Ruble is now nearly worthless. There is even a joke going around Russia and Ukraine: What’s the difference between the Ruble and the Dollar? A dollar.