Gas prices have plummeted over the past month, providing relief to consumers who have spent nearly $60 billion more on fuel due to the Iran war’s impact.
The national average for a gallon of gas was $3.86 Monday, according to motor club AAA, down 53 cents from one month ago when gas was $4.39 a gallon. Monday’s figures mark the sixth straight week of falling gas prices, a trend driven by developments in the Middle East and the Iran war.
“The recent U.S.-Iran framework agreement has helped ease supply fears and pull prices lower, but the accord remains fragile and risks to the upside are significant,” GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick DeHaan said in a statement. “Oil prices recently fell below $70 [per barrel], which may help consumers see lower prices, faster, with global inventories benefiting from the additional oil.”
Gas prices are projected to fall to $3.75 a gallon by July 4.
Though that number is lower than it was a month ago, it will be the second-most expensive Independence Day for gas since fuel prices were tracked, DeHaan said.
Just over four months ago, on February 28, President Donald Trump’s attack on Iran sent gas prices into a dizzying upward spiral. The day before the attack, the national average was $2.98, according to AAA.
Prices shot up by 26 cents in one week to $3.25 as oil prices climbed due to restricted petroleum shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane along Iran’s southern border that’s responsible for 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.
Gas prices’ climb continued as the Iran war escalated. By April 2, the national average surged past $4 for the first time in four years.
The soaring price of gas impacted the nation’s cost of living, affecting various industries that rely on fuel. America’s inflation rate jumped from 2.4 percent in February to 3.3 percent in March. It rose to 3.8 percent in April and 4.2 percent in May, marking a three-year high.
The Trump administration has tried to downplay the gas-price crisis by saying that protecting the country from Iran’s nuclear weapons was a higher priority than keeping prices at the pump down.
In a bizarre moment during a press conference on June 10, the president answered a reporter’s question about cost-of-living levels by saying he loved “the inflation.”
Monday’s news of a sixth-straight week of price declines was a timely one for the president. Americans’ approval of the way he’s handled the economy plummeted to an all-time low for Trump - by June 18, the president’s approval rating fell to 33 percent.
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