The war in Iran is costing Americans $100 billion in extra energy costs — and that number is going up by $1 million every two minutes, according to an estimate from Brown University.
The Iran War Energy Cost Tracker from Brown’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs has tracked the price paid for gasoline and diesel since the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28.
That added cost boils down to about $763 per household, based on an estimated 131 million households nationwide.
President Donald Trump’s war on Iran has been largely unpopular across the U.S., in part because it has caused fuel prices to surge. About 20 percent of the world’s oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed.
Last month, Trump urged Americans to accept higher gasoline prices, saying during a political rally in Garden City, New York, that paying “a tiny bit more for your gasoline” is worth the cost of ensuring “a very evil country” does not have a nuclear weapon.
“After we finish defeating Iran ... pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said during the August 14 rally.
The average gas price as of Monday was $4.15 a gallon — a national record for Labor Day weekend, marking the first time prices had topped $4 over the holiday.
The current cost is well over the previous Labor Day record of $3.82, which was set in 2012, according to AAA.
But many states are seeing much higher prices at the pump, according to Brown University’s tracker. California’s average price on Monday was $5.86 a gallon, while Hawaii’s was $5.39 a gallon.
Most of the added cost from the war is due to gasoline; however, diesel prices hit a record high on Friday and have continued to rise ever since. As of Monday morning, diesel cost $5.90 a gallon, up about 60 percent from this time last year, according to AAA.
Texas has seen the biggest increase in cost for consumers, according to Brown’s tracker. Consumers there are paying about $11 billion in extra gas and diesel costs since the beginning of the Iran war, while residents in California and Florida are paying about $8 billion and $5 billion, respectively.
While Trump — who initially claimed the war would last four to five weeks — says Americans are willing to pay more at the gas pump to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon, polling data shows most Americans disapprove of his handling of the war.
Trump has promised that fuel prices will “drop like a rock” once the war ends, alongside his frequent claims that the war has effectively ended, that Iran's military is destroyed and that the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz.
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