Staff Reports
According to AAA’s gas tracker, gas prices hit a new high of $4.62 per gallon on Tuesday, one day after the customary Memorial Day peak. Diesel remains expensive, with an average price of $5.52 per gallon, barely six cents down than the previous high of $5.58 recorded in mid-May.
Californians continue to pay the highest gas prices in the country, with an average of $6.16 a gallon. No other state has yet experienced an average of $6 or higher per gallon, while JPMorgan Chase analysts expect the national average will be $6.20 by August. With an average of $5.44 per gallon, Hawaii is the state with the second-highest gas costs. At $4.13 a gallon, Kansas residents pay the least.
“[When] it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition,” President Joe Biden stated last week in Japan, facing daily new highs. “When it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels.” says the author.
According to Department of Labor data, Americans’ misery at the pump is only exacerbated by out-of-control inflation, which is climbing at its fastest rate in four decades. Meanwhile, as tankers, trains, trucks, and farming machines rely on diesel to make and carry goods, high diesel costs translate into higher prices across the economy.
While the Biden administration promotes electric automobiles as a solution to avoid high gas prices, Kelley Blue Book reported in December that the average electric vehicle costs $5,000 more than an entry-level luxury car. As a result, as the country descends into recession, gas costs continue to stifle economic growth. In the first quarter, the US economy shrank by 1.4 percent on an annualised basis.
Instead of unleashing the nation’s domestic energy potential by scaling up production, Biden authorised the “unprecedented” release of 1 million barrels of oil per day for 180 days to keep gas prices low. The release began on May 15 and was timed to coincide with more than two weeks of daily gas price records leading up to the holiday weekend.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States consumes over 20 million barrels of oil each day.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on The Federalists.
