US gas prices are the highest they’ve been since 2023

WASHINGTON — Gas prices rose again Monday as the U.S. enters its third week of war with Iran. The national retail average per-gallon inched closer to the dreaded $4 mark. 

As of Monday, the average gallon of gas in the U.S. costs around $3.72, according to price tracking done by AAA. 

According to AAA, California has the most expensive gas, averaging $5.52 per gallon, with Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada, Hawaii, Arizona and Washington D.C. near or above the $4 mark. 

It’s a sharp rise in less than a month. 

In February, before the war began, gas was averaging just under $3 a gallon across the U.S. The daily jumps of 2 to 5 cents have pushed gas prices higher than they’ve been in years, according to CNN. Monday’s average gas prices are the highest they’ve been since Oct. 7, 2023.

But there is some hope in the markets, at least temporarily, after another turbulent weekend for the energy world. 

Crude oil prices, which are the main driver of gas prices, were down Monday morning, though such moves have been quick to reverse since the war in Iran began. 

A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude fell 5.3% to $93.57, easing some pressure off the economy after topping $102 earlier in the morning. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2% to $101.09 per barrel after earlier getting as high as $106.50.

Oil prices, which hovered around $70 per barrel roughly a month ago, spiked after the U.S. and Israel began their attacks on Iran. Iran has since effectively halted traffic through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil typically sails from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. That has oil producers cutting production because their crude has nowhere to go. 

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he has asked about seven countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open as Iranian strikes continued to rain down on Gulf countries. No offers were immediately accepted, but the European Union was scheduled to meet Monday to discuss potential support.

Trump said the U.S. is negotiating with countries heavily reliant on Middle East crude to join a coalition to police the waterway where about one-fifth the world’s traded oil normally flows, but declined to name them.

The president has suggested he may delay his much-anticipated visit to China at the end of the month as he seeks to ramp up the pressure on Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and calm oil prices that have soared during the Iran war.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Friday press briefing at the Pentagon that U.S. forces had no indication that Iran had planted mines in the Strait of Hormuz. 

Iranian officials claimed the strait had been mined in an effort to put economic pressure on the U.S. to end the war. 

“We’ve heard them talking about it but we have no clear evidence of that,” Hegseth said when asked about the possibility of mines in the strait. 

Even without the threat of underwater hazards, the strait remains largely impassable. Although U.S. forces have begun escorting a small number of ships through the narrow passageway, the threat of aerial bombardment by Iranian forces remains ever-present. 

If a tanker or other ship were to get stuck in the strait with the danger of a war ongoing around the area, it would be incredibly difficult to get unstuck. If a ship were to get stuck, the strait could become an even larger bottleneck for global energy for the foreseeable future. 

“We have a plan for every option,” Hegseth said. “That’s not a strait we’re going to allow to remain contested.”

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the United States will release 172 million barrels of oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of the International Energy Agency’s efforts to combat steep oil prices amid the Iran war.

Wright said the release would begin next week and take about 120 days “to deliver based on planned discharge rates.” He also said the U.S. would replace about 200 million barrels within the next year.

The United States had more than 415 million barrels in the SPR as of the end of last month. President Donald Trump previously downplayed the importance of using reserve oil but confirmed earlier Wednesday that his administration would “reduce it a little bit” and then fill it back up.

During an interview Wednesday with WKRC Local 12 in Cincinnati, Trump was asked about tapping the reserve and said, “Well, we’ll do that and then we’ll fill it up.”

He added, “Right now we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down.” He didn’t specify in that interview how many barrels of oil the U.S. would release.

Trump frequently criticized the administration of former President Joe Biden for tapping the reserve to try and bring down gas prices.

Earlier Wednesday, a group representing many of the world’s wealthiest countries agreed  to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in a bid to counter the effects of the Iran war on energy markets and the halt of cargo shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The cost of oil is rising partly because of Iran’s stranglehold on tanker movement through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which about a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped. 

The strait is governed by international law, but Iran has significant control over the waterway. The strait has never been closed before, though shipping was disrupted in the 1980s.

However, Iran has recently attacked several ships in the Strait of Hormuz and threatened any ships that try to pass through, effectively closing it.

Iranian Brig. Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari, an adviser to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, threatened to set fire to any ships attempting to transit

“The Strait of Hormuz is closed,” he declared. “Don’t come to this region.”

Crude oil prices are the driving factor for the cost of gasoline, with higher prices per barrel directly tying to consumers paying more at the pump. According to the federal government, there’s a general rule that for every $1 change in the price of oil, there’s roughly a 2.4-cent change per gallon of gas.