The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline inched above the $4 mark on Tuesday, a plateau that had not been reached since August 2022.
According to AAA, the national average price on Tuesday was at $4.018.
Since late February, the average cost of regular gasoline has jumped 35%, The New York Times reported, citing AAA’s data.
Gas prices in Washington state have climbed nearly $1 in the past month and are threatening to break records for unleaded gasoline as the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues to choke global oil supplies and ripple through the U.S. economy.
Washington already set a new all-time record high for diesel this week, with the statewide average hitting $6.56 a gallon, according to AAA. Some stations in Western Washington are charging more than $6.70 for diesel. Unleaded gasoline statewide averaged $5.33, closing in on the all-time Washington record of $5.56 set in June 2022.
“We have this obsession with gas prices because they dictate a lot of ‘Can we drive? Can we do things we enjoy?’ And now some of that is at risk,” Patrick De Haan, an analyst at GasBuddy, told the newspaper. “As we get to a month of increases and prices are much higher, the amount of pressure on Americans’ budgets and their spending is going to ramp up.”
Since the United States and Israel launched attacks against Iran on Feb. 28, the price of crude oil has spiked, according to The Associated Press.
The average price for a gallon of regular gas may continue to rise, CNN reported.
“I think it’s going to go much higher,” Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group and a former energy adviser to President George W. Bush, told the cable news network in a phone interview.
McNally added that the continued blockage of the Strait of Hormuz could contribute to rising prices.
“I wouldn’t bet my life on it, but there are good chances” gas prices break the 2022 record high of $5.02 per gallon, McNally told CNN.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent gas prices above $5 a gallon.
Kate Gordon, the chief executive of the nonprofit business group California Forward and a former senior adviser in the Department of Energy, told the Times that presidents are generally blamed for gas prices, even if they are out of his control.
“It is the biggest headache for whoever happens to be in power when something like this happens,” she said. “Usually, a hurricane hits the gulf and gas prices go up, and then whoever’s in power gets blamed for it.”
President Donald Trump, she said, “is going to get blamed anyway because he’s in power, but also he made the decision to go to war in Iran.”
Diesel prices are also on the rise, the AP reported.
The fuel used by many freight and delivery trucks are now averaging $5.46 per gallon, according to AAA. That is an increase from $3.76, the price before hostilities began in the Middle East.
De Haan said oil markets remain extremely sensitive to rhetoric from the White House and Tehran. A single session two to three weeks ago saw crude oil jump 30% on war fears, though markets have since settled into a tense but less volatile pattern.
“The market doesn’t like uncertainty,” De Haan said. “What the market’s telling you now is we’ve kind of seen both sides making similar refrains, similar rhetoric. Oil prices are probably going to continue slowly trending upward as long as this remains largely unresolved.”
He said a gasoline record for Washington, and Seattle specifically, appears to be a matter of when, not if.
“By this point, with everything going on, it probably solidifies that we will see a record for Seattle,” De Haan said. “It’s just a matter of time.”