The price of gasoline peaked at $4.33 per gallon on March 25 as note by AAA Gas Price Statistics.
Crude futures explain the brief respite and why prices are headed back up.
Crude Futures
Crude hit $130.50 on March 7 but the price did not stay there.
Futures closed that day at $109.33.
Futures then declined below $100 to $93 53 on seriously wrong news of a possible peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Crude futures are now headed back up. Crude futures are near $115 on March 23 and headed up.
As a result gas prices are climbing again with California leading the way.
California Gas Prices
The price of gasoline topped the $6.00 mark in four California counties today.
Mono county has the dubious honor of highest-in-the-nation prices at $6.605 per gallon.
Some stations are rapidly headed towards the $7.00 mark.
Gas Rebate Act of 2022
A group of Congressional Democrats introduced the Gas Rebate Act of 2022 to help stem the cost of rising pump prices.
The bill is sponsored by Reps. Mike Thompson, D-California, John Larson, D-Connecticut, and Lauren Underwood, D-Illinois.
The representative propose sending $100 for single tax filers earning less than $75,000 phasing out at $80,000 or joint filers earning less than $150,000 and phasing out at $160,000.
Filers also get $100 per dependent. The checks would get distributed in any month in which prices exceed $4.00 per gallon.
Plug the Hole
Elizabeth Warren wants to plug the hole. Of course, that is one of the reasons the price of oil and food is rising.
Windfall Profits
While we are at it, let’s tax profits and threaten oil companies so much they will not want to increase supply.
The bill would impose a 50 percent tax on the difference between the current sale price of a barrel of oil and the average price of a barrel of oil from 2015 to 2019, which was about $66 per barrel on average.
That does not factor in costs to produce the oil and it leads to more dependence on foreign oil, a ridiculous move under any circumstances, but especially today.
What Can the Fed Do About the Price of Food, Medicine, Gasoline, or Rent?
The answer is nothing or next to nothing. Rates hikes will not impact inelastic items.
The Fed can do nothing but Biden can and has made things worse.
For discussion of the Fed, please see What Can the Fed Do About the Price of Food, Medicine, Gasoline, or Rent?
Free Money! What Can Go Wrong?
Returning to the oil rebate idea: Hooray, more free money, especially for dependents who don’t even drive!
Free money blasted out in shotgun fashion is the key reason for massive inflation even before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Meanwhile, despite claims of wanting to hold down the price of oil, President Biden’s actions speak louder than his lies.
Here’s the actual setup: Biden Doing Everything Possible to Drive Up the Price of Oil, Some of It’s Illegal
This post originated at MishTalk.Com.
Thanks for Tuning In!
Please Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.
Subscribers get an email alert of each post as they happen. Read the ones you like and you can unsubscribe at any time.
If you have subscribed and do not get email alerts, please check your spam folder.
Mish
Except with covid i cant recall gas being under 4 in cali anytime. It will never go away. In my opinion if the gov is gonna do something this is better than cutting the gas tax. My reasoning is high gas prices will affect every aspect of life. Think food medical anything made or shipped. With higher gas prices people will change driving habits if they can lowering usage. You drop 50 cents off A gallon it lowers that threshold people will drive more putting a strain on supply and the price will go back up and were back to square one.
Yeah there is an article floating around on aol i think. Talking about how Reagan wanted to block the pipeline to Europe back in his day. Lots of lobbying from the oil companies was one of the reasons it did not go thru. I came to the same conclusion. They win either way.
suffering $22.4 billion in losses the previous year because of the
pandemic-fueled economic downturn.