Gas prices continue to rise in the US, rising 14% in a week
Gas prices in the United States averaged $3.41 a gallon on Saturday, a day after crude oil prices rose to levels not seen since 2023 as the fallout from US-Israeli attacks on Iran continued.
This increase means that the price of gasoline has increased by 14 percent in the past week, according to the AAA Motor Club. Prices recorded on Saturday were the highest for gasoline since 2024.
The sudden rise in energy costs – everything from kerosene to diesel for trucks and tractors is more expensive – is due to crude oil deliveries from the Persian Gulf. The tankers that normally transport oil from the region are not sailing, cutting off the world from about a fifth of its oil supply.
This has led to a rise in oil prices worldwide. As of Friday, U.S. crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate had risen more than 35 percent this week to settle at $90.90 a barrel, with much of that increase coming on Friday alone. The last time crude oil traded at these levels, U.S. gasoline prices were above $3.80 a gallon, AAA data shows.
There are already big differences in the amount of the fares. Although oil prices account for the largest share of gasoline costs at about 60 percent, taxes, refining margins and distribution costs can further increase prices. Drivers in California, for example, paid an average of $5.08 per gallon on Saturday, the highest in the country, while those in Kansas paid the lowest at $2.90.
Prices at the pump could stabilize once oil channels reopen, but the impact on American wallets could linger beyond that point.
“Even if it’s a short-term price increase and we’re back to where we were in two to three months, you’re still putting a significant strain on people’s budgets and having a significant impact on the economy,” said Wayne Winegarden, an economist at the Pacific Research Institute, a think tank. “This will have long-term effects.”
In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, President Trump indicated that military action in Iran was a priority for him and that he was willing to tolerate a rise in prices. “They’ll go down very quickly when this is over, and when they go up, they go up, but that’s far more important than gas prices going up a little bit,” he said.
Energy experts generally say presidents have little control over oil prices, but the United States has its strategic petroleum reserve with storage capacity of 714 million barrels to draw on in the event of shortages. In 2022, as gas prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. released millions of barrels from inventories to offset commodity prices.
However, if any impact were to be felt, it would likely be temporary and the reserve was not intended to provide an economic cushion.
If the United States is “stricken and we don’t have supplies and the military or the government needs oil, then that’s the purpose of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for emergencies of that nature,” Winegarden said. “If its purpose is to improve market trends, it is simply not sufficient for the task.”
