U.S. Gas Prices Have Fallen for 91 Straight Days, a Relief for Consumers - The New York Times
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The price of gasoline fell steadily in August but is still higher than it was a year ago.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
By Isabella Simonetti
- Sept. 13, 2022
The price of gasoline continues to fall steadily, easing pressure on American consumers as the cost of filling a tank continued to tumble from record levels reached earlier in the summer.
Gas prices fell 10.6 percent in August, which helped moderate still-sky-high inflation, Tuesday's Consumer Price Index report showed.
The energy index, which tracks gasoline and electricity among other energy sources, dropped 5 percent last month, as electricity and natural gas prices rose.
After peaking at $5.02 in June, gasoline prices have dropped for 91 straight days, and the national average stood at just over $3.70 a gallon on Tuesday, data from AAA show. But analysts point to a few reasons this streak of declines is unlikely to continue.
Because they're determined by oil prices, gasoline prices are also susceptible to a wide range of challenges, like hurricanes that knock out drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and efforts to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine by curbing its ability to sell crude on the global market.
While gas prices are down, the overall energy index still remains up 23.8 percent over the 12 months that ended in August. Electricity prices alone jumped 15.8 percent, representing the largest 12-month increase since August 1981, the inflation report said. The jump in electricity prices is largely attributable to the high cost of natural gas, said Laura Rosner-Warburton, an economist at MacroPolicy Perspectives.
As winter approaches, other fuel prices could influence inflation data. The cost of heating a home with natural gas, the most common source of home-heating fuel in the United States, is expected to jump more than 25 percent from last year, to $952 for the six months from October through March, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
"You would expect that a hard winter could create a significant increase in demand in price of natural gas," said Bryan Benoit,U.S. national managing partner of energy at Grant Thornton. "And then of course all of this is further exacerbated by what's going on with the war in the Ukraine."
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The price of gasoline has gone down every day since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act!
Exactly, cause and effect. Voodoo economics.
Exactly, that brings the price of gasoline down, that and chicken entrails.
So draining the strategic oil reserve of millions of gallons of oil had nothing to do with it? Then WTF is Brandon doing tapping it? It is for emergencies only. Trying to preserve a Democrat majority in Congress is not an emergency.
That bill is coming due. We will all get to see the affects when the US government has to resupply every last drop they took with oil over $100 a barrel.
You're not supposed to remember stuff like that. It destroys the narrative and makes people cry.
Probably going to rise again since production was cut back
Cause and effect?
Who cares!
I'll take the good news as it comes along.
And ignore the bad news ....... great plan!
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If you think I’m thankful for gas being only $5+ per gallon, you’re out of your mind.
Oh I think there are many reasons for various prices increases over the last year or two. I don’t blame Biden for all of them, but he has had a little time now to bring them down further than this. He’s in charge right now. If he wants credit for bringing down prices a year and a half in to his administration, then he gets some blame, too, for it taking this long.
Regardless, placing blame was not my point.
If only we could pour gasoline on our cornflakes.
More foundational to the price I pay for gas is the fact that I live in California, where, by law, we can only pour specially brewed, local IPA gasoline in our cars.
Some years ago, I had reason to drive to Texas. Every time I crossed a border, the price of gas went down like 30 cents.
There was a story on NPR about gas prices and they explained the bind gas station owners are in. They buy gas at a particular price point in time and then the market price fluctuates beyond their control. They are often in a position of selling gasoline at a loss and depend upon the convenience store at the gas station to pay the bills.
It does really explain the price difference between counties and states. I wonder what's behind that.
Only another 30% or so to go get it back to what it was when he was sworn in.
Will the US burn through its strategic reserves before we get there? Time will tell.
This is like feeling good about buying something at a 50% discount after it was already marked up another 100%.