The average price that Americans pay for gasoline is closing in on $5 a gallon, another drain on the wallets of consumers who are paying more for many other essentials too.
AAA said the nationwide average for regular on Thursday was $4.97 a gallon, up a quarter in just the last week and $1.90 more than drivers were paying a year ago.
GasBuddy, a service that helps drivers find deals on gas, said the average surpassed $5 for the first time ever.
Pump prices have been rising steadily for months, shooting past the $4 mark in early March. They track the cost of crude oil, which was rising even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove oil even higher.
Fears of short supplies are being compounded by demand, which usually picks up around Memorial Day at the end of May — the unofficial start of summer and vacation trips in the U.S.
California has the highest average price, at $6.40 a gallon, according to AAA. Several other Western states and Illinois are higher than $5.50.
The lowest average is in Georgia, at $4.41.
While the $5 mark on average is new, Americans paid more for gasoline back in July 2008, when inflation is considered. The high of $4.11 a gallon then would be equal to about $5.40 a gallon today.
“I think we’re in a particularly extreme situation right now,” said Harrison Fell, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “I don’t think many economists would argue sustained $5 gas prices would have minimal effects. I think most of us would agree sustained prices that high with no other policy intervention would be a drag on the economy. Whether or not it’s sufficient to tip us into a recession is a bit of an unknown factor.”
If we get to $5.50 or $6, that would be consistent with $150 for a barrel of oil. I think then, we’re done. We’re in for a recession,” said Mark Zandy of Moody’s Analytical. “It would be too much to bear. I think we could digest $120 if we don’t stay there too long.”
(AP/YWN)
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10 Responses
Some Tesla-driving politicians are celebrating this accomplishment as their Big Oil and Tesla stock holdings are increasing in value. We suffer under their corrupt leadership.
THROUGH THE CEILING # of Republican victories come 11/8/2022
How’s about reporting some good news , once in a while ,please .
Stick to the narrative. Jan 6th. What the privileged white racist Trump did on Jan 6th is worse than the Buffalo massacre and Uvalde massacre combined! The average American doesn’t care about the rising gas and egg prices. They are petrified about what happened on Jan 6th.
For many, the real shocker will be their home heating prices next winter since average natural gas prices (Henry Hub) may soon reach $10/MMBTU. This would be a roughly 500% increase since June 2020. While the commodity component (BTUs) of home heating prices from gas distribution utilities accounts for only half of the average bill (fixed charges for the pipeline system, G&A etc account for the rest). it will still be a big surge in monthly heating bills. It is also reflected already in summer electric bills for A/C etc since for most utilities, natural gas is now the marginal fuel for electric peak-load generation.
Thanks for the news! We didn’t notice :/
Joe & the Dems did that! And if they wanna blame Putin, nope, they did that too! Remember?
Reporter: “Me President will you take any action to stop Putin?”
Biden: “Well it all depends how much of an incursion”
It’s like living full time in Israel but without the airfare .
Interesting ” coincidence”, we’re paying extremely high prices for gas, and oil companies are making the highest profits in history.
Joe Biden has now said, publicly, that the prices are intentional because he’s working to drive us to “green energy.” So, if you think this is a problem, it’s YOUR problem, not his.