High Gas Prices Might Be Here For A While, But We Have A Way Out

High Gas Prices Might Be Here For A While, But We Have A Way Out

Detail of a hand holding a fuel pump at a station Although there are many indicators of how the global economy is going, the price of gasoline is the one that we all know best. The average cost of a gallon of gasoline in the U. S. is now above $4. 25 per gallon, nominally higher than they have ever been. U. S. policymakers have for decades been saying that we need to get off of foreign energy supplies, it wasn't wrong then and its certainly not wrong now. But today we have options that we haven't had in the past. For the first time in 70 years, we are able to produce as much crude oil and petroleum products as we consume, but a lack of pipelines and the right type of refining capabilities hinders our ability to be fully self-sufficient. We also now have the ability to stop using much of the petroleum altogether by electrifying transportation. Given how much uncertainty is in the global oil market, prices could very well go higher unless more crude is able to make it to market or demand goes down. At the core, the price of gasoline is going up because