With the war in the Middle East still driving up energy costs, Americans are facing record gasoline prices during the Labor Day weekend, precisely as political campaigns for the midterm elections are beginning.
The national average price of gasoline is expected to reach $4.03 per gallon on Labor Day, next Monday, far surpassing the previous record of $3.83 per gallon set in 2012, said GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan.
“Gasoline, while not at record-high levels, is at the highest level ever recorded for this time of year, which means Americans may, for the first time in history, see the national average price above $4 per gallon on Labor Day,” De Haan wrote in a recent blog post.
The national average price of gasoline hovered at about $4.13 per gallon on Thursday, up nearly a dollar from last year’s average, according to the GasBuddy price monitoring service. Analysts say $4 per gallon is a critical threshold for many consumers.
Gasoline prices, one of the most visible economic indicators for U.S. consumers, can quickly shape perceptions about the economy as a whole. With prices hovering above $4 per gallon for much of the year, the issue has become a persistent concern for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party.
Trump promised to reduce energy costs. In recent weeks, he intensified his criticisms of refineries and fuel retailers, accusing them of profiting from high prices at the pumps. On August 14, Trump said that Americans should be willing to pay “a little more” for gasoline to ensure that Iran would not be able to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Labor Day is typically the last summer getaway for many Americans, with many people traveling by car or plane.
Prices at the pump rose along with crude oil prices, which this week again topped $90 a barrel after new military actions between the United States and Iran revived concerns about disruptions to global crude oil supply.
Prices for distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, also rose, driven in part by ongoing attacks on Russian refining facilities, which raised concerns about supply disruptions.
Retail fuel prices and crude oil prices tend to follow the same trend, as crude oil is the primary cost in fuel production.
Motorists Reduce Consumption
“It’s completely out of control,” said Randi O’Brien, 57, as she refueled her pickup at a Phillips 66 station near Evergreen, Colorado.
Colorado, along with Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota, has recorded some of the largest price increases since the start of the war. California, Hawaii, and Washington currently have the highest average gasoline prices in the country.
“Right now, I can only spend about $15 on gas,” O’Brien said, as she drives about 40 minutes round trip each day to work at Home Depot. She partly attributes the high prices to the increased exports of crude oil and refined fuel from the United States after the start of the war with Iran, which led many countries to turn to the U.S. for fuel supply.
Exports of refined products rose more than 10% compared with last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“We have our own fuel here, but we’re sending it elsewhere,” she said.
O’Brien’s difficulties are being shared by motorists across the United States.
With the cost of even a routine trip to the grocery store rising and family budgets already tight, Madison Moore, 28, a Houston resident, said she was trimming her Labor Day travel plans.
“It used to be easy to get the car ready, go to Galveston for the beach and have a barbecue or something like that. But people don’t want to go out like that anymore,” Moore said as she filled up at a Shell station in Houston.
“You can imagine that our government could do a little more for the people when they really need it.”
