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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGasoline prices are now at the highest seasonal level in more than a decade even as the Labor Day holiday marked the end of the U.S. summer driving season, sparking fears that inflation could accelerate again in a challenge to President Joe Biden’s reelection efforts.
The national average for regular gasoline stands at $3.811 a gallon, topping this time last year and marking the second-highest level in records going back to 1994 from AAA. The move comes in a period when prices typically decline going into fall and is a U-turn after a relatively affordable summer for drivers.
The average price of gas in Indiana was almost $3.61 per gallon Tuesday, with average Indianapolis-area prices ranging from $3.62 in Marion County to $3.71 in Hamilton County.
Relief at the pump is complicated by a resurgence in the cost of oil, with Brent futures topping $90 a barrel on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia and Russia extended production cuts that have already tightened global supply. Both the global benchmark and West Texas Intermediate futures are at the highest level since November.
Expensive fuel poses a risk to Biden as it’s one of the most visible signs of inflation. The president is “doing everything within his tool kit to be able to get lower prices for consumers at the gas pump,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a White House briefing Tuesday, adding that gasoline prices are an “ultimate metric” for success.
Last year in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration resorted to selling an unprecedented amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when record pump prices helped push inflation to a 40-year high. Now, the administration is in the process of buying back crude to refill the emergency caverns, which have drained close to their lowest level in four decades.
Fuel markets have also been squeezed, with U.S. national stockpiles staying largely below seasonal norms since around mid-July. Supply is unlikely to rebuild soon with refineries entering the fall maintenance season, but the decline in demand should provide some balance.
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I wonder how that brilliant strategy of putting a price cap on oil promulgated by the genius Secretary of the Treasury Yellen is working out? Only Biden could have believed that would work.
Are you referencing the price caps placed by the US and other nations on Russian Oil? The caps intended to limit Russian capital flows to make their efforts in seizing the independent country of Ukraine more onerous? Because those caps apply only to Russian oil, not OPEC oil or US oil generally.
Mayhaps you would look instead to Saudi decisions to reduce their domestic production below even OPEC targets in order to increase the price of oil closer to $100/bl in order to finance their efforts to diversify their economy from oil, while continuing to line the pockets of the royal family.
Meanwhile, US production during the Biden Administration is nearly back to the pre-COVID level. That’s right…oil production in the US is not falling due to Biden.
(the columns are months, source US Department of Energy, Energy Information Agency)
2015 9,383 9,490 9,583 9,658 9,474 9,357 9,445 9,409 9,477 9,399 9,332 9,275
2016 9,201 9,060 9,100 8,873 8,834 8,675 8,661 8,689 8,543 8,803 8,902 8,815
2017 8,874 9,094 9,164 9,101 9,185 9,110 9,246 9,250 9,516 9,668 10,085 9,983
2018 10,000 10,262 10,466 10,499 10,434 10,640 10,896 11,391 11,443 11,508 11,885 11,944
2019 11,871 11,652 11,911 12,145 12,153 12,216 11,896 12,479 12,584 12,805 13,000 12,980
2020 12,850 12,844 12,795 11,911 9,714 10,446 11,004 10,579 10,926 10,456 11,196 11,172
2021 11,137 9,916 11,351 11,318 11,390 11,366 11,392 11,276 10,921 11,564 11,782 11,678
2022 11,480 11,258 11,806 11,770 11,734 11,800 11,834 11,985 12,325 12,378 12,376 12,138
2023 12,568 12,532 12,770 12,650 12,637 12,844