Last Updated on June 2, 2022
The national average cost of an unleaded gallon of gasoline — which currently sits at $4.715 — continues to set records on a daily basis. Gas prices have nearly doubled since Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
On the day of Biden’s inauguration, the national average stood at just $2.39. At nearly $4.72, the price has just about doubled and likely will reach that mark at some point this month.
The Biden Administration has tried to blame the price hikes entirely on Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. Fuel costs were surging long before the wider war broke out in February, however.
From November 2021 through February 2022, the national average spiked close to $1.50 per gallon. Prices then spiked another 40% or so since the conflict began, pushing gas prices well past record highs.
Analysts expect the national average to push past $5 per gallon this summer. A handful of states, including Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and Idaho have already seen gas prices push past the threshold. In California, the average cost currently stands at $6.23 per gallon.
JPMorgan analysts have forecasted a national average that could climb as high as $6.20 per gallon by August.
While speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said his options to curb gas prices in the short term are limited.
“The idea we’re going to be able to, you know, click a switch and bring down the cost of gasoline is not likely in the near term, nor is it with regard to food,” Biden said. “We can’t take immediate action, that I’m aware of yet, to figure out how to bring down the price of gasoline back to $3 a gallon — and we can’t do that immediately with regard to food prices, either,” he added. ”But we can compensate by providing for other necessary costs for families, by bringing those down. That reduces the cost of inflation for that family.”
Biden has called on U.S. oil and gas producers to ramp up production and also announced the release of 180 million barrels of oil from the U.S. emergency stockpile, the largest one-time release since the reserve’s creation in 1974, according to The Washington Examiner.
