Whatever we’re doing in Iran is not working, except to continue to push gas prices toward the $4-per-gallon mark, with diesel approaching $5.50 a gallon.
Gas prices are actually down four cents from a recent high for four days last week, when the average nationwide touched $3.99 a gallon and stayed there, according to data from GasBuddy.
The national average is now at $3.95 a gallon, still up two cents from a week ago, and 97.9 cents from the start of the war in Iran.
The sense that we’re getting nowhere with Iran was underscored in an interview that Secretary of State Marco Rubio on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” on Monday, in which Rubio declared the new leaders in Iran that Donald Trump claims we’re negotiating with are “lunatics” and “insane.”
Rubio assumes the Iranian leadership doesn’t have access to TV or the interwebs.
Meanwhile, the “lunatics” in charge have effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil flows, and their “insane” efforts there “curtails the flow of millions of barrels of crude oil each day,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
“The situation remains highly volatile and unpredictable, but upward pressure on fuel prices is likely to persist as long as global oil supplies are constrained by the continued disruption in the Strait. We’re likely to see the national average for gasoline push beyond the $4-per-gallon mark, while diesel could approach $6 per gallon and potentially set new records if conditions fail to improve,” said De Haan, noting that “Americans have already spent nearly $8 billion more on gasoline over the past month, a trend that poses growing risks to the broader economy, while surging diesel prices may begin to reaccelerate inflation.”
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Chris Graham
