U.S. gasoline prices have surged above $4 per gallon for the first time in more than three years, as the oil supply shock triggered by the Middle East war rapidly drives up costs for families.
Prices at the pump hit a nationwide average of $4.018, the highest level since August 2022 when Russia’s war against Ukraine shook energy markets, the travel association AAA said. Gas prices have soared more than 30% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February, according to AAA data.
“We foresee potential for a disruption to the American fuel supply,” Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, told reporters at S&P Global’s CERAWeek conference in Houston last week. The EPA is temporarily lifting some regulations to increase gas supplies in an effort to ease prices.
Vice President JD Vance told consumers they face “a rough road ahead” on gas prices in the coming weeks. Vance promised that the spike is temporary and prices will fall after the war has ended.
″We’ve got a problem, we know we have a problem, and we’re doing everything we can to address it,” the vice president said at an event in Auburn Hills, Michigan on March 18.
