I remember a day, lost in the mists of time, when I rode along with my father to town. I was 13 and had just bought, for the grand sum of $25 taken from the previous winter’s trapline money, an old mini-bike, one of those with a Briggs & Stratton two-stroke engine. In the back of Dad’s station wagon was a five-gallon gas can, which I filled in Waukon at the incredible rate of $.349 — not quite 35 cents a gallon. I had a lot of fun with that old thing. That five gallons of gas cost me less than two bucks and lasted all summer.
Oh, how things have changed.
So far nobody from the Trump campaign has contacted me asking for my advice on campaign issues, but they don’t need me to tell them that gas prices are kind of a big deal to American consumers right now, especially as they are rising again.
The cost of gas continues to soar as the average price for a gallon of regular gas rose for the second straight day. The latest increases negate the minimal decrease Americans experienced over the Fourth of July weekend. Prices are now less than a penny cheaper than last year at this time.
The average price for a gallon of regular gas increased to $3.538 on Wednesday, rising almost two cents in 24 hours, according to AAA. On Tuesday, the average price for a gallon of regular gas was $3.519. On Monday and Sunday, a gallon of regular gas cost $3.506.
Gas is also more expensive now than it was a month ago when it was $3.445 per gallon.
The lowest and highest gas prices, by state, come with little surprise.
Mississippi had the cheapest gas prices for a gallon of regular gas on Wednesday, at $3.005 — rising above $3 for the first time in weeks. Meanwhile, California had the country’s most expensive gas on Wednesday, at $4.784.
A quick look at the recent history of gas prices is revealing. In January 2021, when Joe Biden took office, gas prices were averaging, nationwide, $2.42. “Ah,” liberals will point out, “But that was due to the reduction in demand due to COVID.” That may be true to some extent — but gasoline prices were below $3 for all of President Trump’s term in the White House.
Gas prices are an area where who is sitting at the Resolute Desk can matter, as the Executive Branch has some say over energy policy, especially when it comes to extraction on federal lands — like Alaska’s North Slope Borough. They also have some say on pipelines, like the Keystone pipeline that Joe Biden killed on his first day in office, along with halting leasing on the North Slope, among other places.
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Oh, and the last time we filled up our truck here in the Great Land — last Friday — we paid $3.59 a gallon. In Alaska. A state that sits on an ocean of petroleum. Go figure.
There can be little doubt that, as the campaign season heats up, the Trump/Vance campaign will be hammering the Biden (or whoever) campaign in this. Gas prices, after all, affect much more than how much it costs to fill up your tank. Fuel prices in general, especially gasoline and diesel, affect every other price, up and down the supply chain. Everything that is made, everything that is consumed, has to be transported by truck, by train, by air, and that requires diesel fuel, jet-A, and plenty of it, and when those fuels are more expensive, so is everything else.
Cheap fuel boosts the economy. Expensive fuel damages the economy. It’s as simple as that. Watch for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance to hit this theme repeatedly between now and November.
