As any American who has hit the road during the opening weeks of this summer knows, prices at the pump are soaring.
The national average of a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline reached $3.13 on Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). Such a high price would have been unthinkable two summers ago, when the national average sat at $2.75 per gallon.
Travellers hitting the road over the holiday weekend braved the highest Independence Day gas prices in seven years, when the national average sat at $3.66 per gallon.
“Today, 89% of U.S. gas stations are selling regular unleaded for $2.75 or more,” AAA spokesperson Jeannette McGee said on June 28. “That is a stark increase over last July 4 when only a quarter of stations were selling gas for more than $2.25.”
California ($4.31), Hawaii ($4.03), Washington ($3.81), and Nevada ($3.77) -- all states carried by Joe Biden last November -- were the states with the highest average prices on Tuesday morning. Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Utah rounded out the list of states with average prices above $3.50.
21 of the 50 states reported gas prices less than $3 per gallon, and just 11 reported prices below $2.90 per gallon. All 11 of these states, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, were carried by Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
As the summer continues and many Americans take the vacations they’ve put off for a year, there seems to be no end to this gas-flation in sight.
Of course, President Joe Biden and other Democrats are not completely to blame for the staggering increases. The demand created by economic re-openings has created an unstable oil market, and no politician is responsible for anyone’s holiday weekend travel plans.
However, the White House has done little to quell the concerns caused by widespread increases. Biden’s climate agenda involved cancelling the construction of the Keystone Pipeline on his first day in office, a move that eliminated thousands of oil jobs.
Biden also responded apathetically to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, which was compromised by a Russia-linked cybercriminal group back in May. The Houston-based pipeline carries oil to the Eastern U.S., and fears about the cyberattack prompted panic gas buying, driving up already-rising prices.