CBS’ analysts peg the date we hit $5 per gallon as the national average at June 17. I say … take the under, because Joe Biden’s “incredible transition” is accelerating:
Motorists hoping for some relief at the pump should think again.
Gas prices nationally could reach $5 a gallon on average by as early as June 17, according to Patrick De Haan, an analyst for GasBuddy, which tracks fuel costs across the nation. That’s up from the current national average of $4.62 a gallon, already a record high, according to AAA.
Americans are paying record-high prices for gasoline as the summer travel season arrives — an issue that’s weighing on consumers as they make their vacation plans more than rising COVID-19 rates, according to a new survey from Morning Consult. At a handful of stations in California, fuel now tops the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
At the current rate of rise, don’t be too surprised to break that record before June 14th. The EIA took its sweet time yesterday updating the official chart on average prices for all formulations, but finally posted a new record $4.727 price after close of business yesterday for the week ending on 5/30. That’s thirty cents higher than it was three weeks ago and fifty-one cents higher than at the end of April.
That rate-of-rise pace is reflected in the EIA chart as of this morning, but might be indistinguishable from the rate of rise for the entirety of Joe Biden’s presidency:
We’ve mentioned this in early analyses, but let’s update the calculation on Biden’s impact on gas prices. When Biden took office, the average gas price for all formulations as measured by the EIA was $2.464. While prices had been depressed by the pandemic and the lack of demand as people stayed home and out of retail businesses, the price wasn’t much higher before COVID-19 shut down the economy. As of the first week of March 2020, the average price was $2.514. The last time it had been over $3.00 was in June 2018, a momentary bump over Memorial Day of that year; the previous instance of >$3 gas was in late 2014. Under Biden, we hit that mark in May 2021 and never went back under that price ever since.
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Gas prices have escalated by 91% under Joe Biden … so far. They went up 43% before Vladimir Putin began positioning troops around Ukraine, in fact. And even though Biden has had months to come up with an energy plan to deal with gas-price inflation that he blames on Putin, gas prices have gone up by 27% in the three months since. That’s an astounding rate of inflation, and it’s infecting all other parts of the economy.
The Morning Consult poll CBS references shows just how badly this will impact the economy over the summer. With the pandemic now behind us almost everywhere but in Washington DC, the tourist industry needed a robust travel season this summer. Americans feel the need too, with 69% of Americans hoping to take their families on the road for at least an overnight stay. Thanks specifically to high fuel prices, however, 57% say they will take fewer trips this summer, and 33% will cancel their travel with no plans to reschedule. Get ready for the Summer of 70s Stagflation.
And that’s just what we see at the start of the summer. Prices will continue rising sharply, and $5 will hardly be the last milestone on that path. USA Today warns its readers today to expect a “cruel summer,” with all due apologies to Bananarama:
“After several weeks of soaring gas prices, last week saw prices nationally slow down ahead of Memorial Day, but I’m afraid the good news ends there,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
Consumers should prepare for a “cruel summer,” with gas inventories at the lowest seasonal levels since 2019 as the summer driving season heats up, Natasha Kaneva, JPMorgan head of global commodities strategy, said last week. She predicted the national average for regular unleaded would climb to $6.20 per gallon by Labor Day.
And of course, these are average gas prices. Consumers pay higher prices in some areas, reaching well over $7 per gallon in Los Angeles and other parts of California, as well as a few other markets in the US. Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Karine Jean-Pierre to explain what Biden was doing about that, and … well …
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So I guess the White House has reversed Biden’s “incredible transition” messaging, eh? Biden sure went from “Feel My Joy” to “I Feel Your Pain” in a heartbeat. Or at least his comms team did.
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