Gasoline Prices Reach $5 a Gallon Nationwide for the First Time
The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas in the U.S. hit $5 Friday night, and the rise in fuel costs is expected to persist throughout the busy summer driving season.
The record high, according to OPIS, an energy-data and analytics provider, comes as U.S. consumer inflation hit its highest level in 40 years and crude oil prices remain high.
Gas prices skyrocketed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, with traders, shippers and financiers shunning Russian oil supplies. Oil inventories, which were already tight because of higher demand from economic reopening, have depleted even more, with no sign of relief ahead.
That has translated to pain at the pump, further squeezing Americans’ household budgets already hit by higher prices on everything from items at the grocery store to restaurant meals and air travel. Prices for energy jumped 34.6% from a year earlier, while the cost of groceries rose 11.9% on the year, adding to consumers’ woes.
Shenetha James,
a mother of four kids in Jackson, Miss., hasn’t seen her eldest daughter, who lives about 700 miles away in North Carolina, since Christmas, because of high gas prices.
The average cost of a gallon of unleaded gas in Mississippi was still below the national average Friday, at about $4.52, according to OPIS, which is part of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s been kind of hard,” Ms. James said, “not being able to really be there.”
Shenetha James of Jackson, Miss., hasn’t seen her eldest daughter, who lives about 700 miles away, since Christmas, because of high gas prices.
Photo:
Shenetha James
Ms. James, who works for the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, drives one kid to basketball practice and another to work at Chick-fil-A a few times a week. After dropping them off, to save money on gas, Ms. James waits in a parking lot instead of driving back home.
“We’ve got to manage this gas to get from one pay period to another,” she said.
Analysts say high gas prices could persist. A report from
last month said retail gas prices could jump to $6.20 a gallon by August. The cost of gas on average has already exceeded that price in California, where gas was about $6.43 on average Friday, according to OPIS.
“People are still fueling up, despite these high prices,” said
Andrew Gross,
a spokesman at AAA. “At some point, drivers may change their daily driving habits or lifestyle due to these high prices, but we are not there yet.”
AAA, an automobile organization, obtains data from OPIS.
Some drivers are purchasing fewer gallons on each visit to gas stations but making more frequent trips to fuel up.
Patrick De Haan,
head of petroleum analysis at price tracker GasBuddy, said consumer resilience has remained relatively strong, even as demand has started to waver. He projects people will more significantly adjust their driving habits when gas hits between $5.40 and $5.50.
That is around the price that, adjusted for inflation, would surpass the 2008 peak for gas prices, Mr. De Haan said.
Pandemic-related strains have added pressure on gas prices.
Photo:
JACQUELINE DORMER/Associated Press
“We’re getting to the point where there’s probably a lot more demand destruction ahead as consumers come to grips with the higher fuel prices—something we’ve never seen to this magnitude,” Mr. De Haan said.
Chris Stevenson, a 24-year-old from New Jersey, said he’s just going…
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