DENVER – “Ridiculous.” “Outrageous.” A necessary “sacrifice.”
From New York to California, Florida to New Jersey, little red numbers at gas stations remind Americans that driving has just gotten a whole lot more expensive. Drivers across the country spoke with USA TODAY reporters as gas prices hit a national average of $4 a gallon, the highest they’ve been since Aug. 8, 2022, according to the price-tracking service GasBuddy.
It’s not just the price, but the size of the increase driven by President Donald Trump’s attack on Iran that has some drivers taken aback. In a single month, prices rose $1.05, the biggest-ever one-month jump recorded by GasBuddy.
Drivers said the shocking price rise is reshaping how they live, work and travel, with higher commuting costs cutting into earnings, and high prices making it harder to visit family or take vacations.
Small Business Owners Feel the Squeeze
For Amit Verma of Arlington, Virginia, the price hikes have him rethinking driving altogether. On March 31, Verma, 30, paid $70 to fill up his 2015 Audi S7 before his 35-minute commute to Bethesda, Maryland. He said taking the metro adds about 15 minutes to his commute, but that’s worth it if gas prices stay high.
“It seems like a problem that our administration potentially created for themselves, kind of unnecessarily, and a lot of people gotta pay the price,” said Verma, who works in investment. He said he worries rising gas prices will further burden Americans who have felt the crunch of inflation for years under presidents Biden and Trump.
Sacramento-based landscaper Doug Guster, 71, said he’s lost over $800 in profit from his business due to rising fuel prices. Just filling his work truck costs nearly $100 a tank, he said, and he’s also got leaf blowers, lawn mowers and trimmers to keep fueled.
“Over the last few weeks, I’ve lost like five or six customers because I have to raise my prices — all because of these gas prices,” Guster said while filling up at a Foods Co. gas station in Sacramento. “I didn’t want to. But otherwise it comes out of my pockets, my overhead cost.”
Near Denver International Airport, Texas-based life coach Michael Bates said he hopes high gas prices force Trump to reverse course on Iran. Filling up his Jeep Wrangler rental with $3.69 a gallon gas before returning it, Bates said he voted for Trump in 2024 in part because he wanted cheaper prices.
“I’m not very happy with how he’s been running things, and I voted for the guy,” Bates said. “And it’s going to hurt him if he can’t do a something about this. Hopefully this will provide the pressure necessary to get us out of this illegal war.”
How Did Gas Prices Get Here?
Trump swept into office last year with promises that he would lower the cost of living, specifically promising gas at $2 a gallon. Many of his administration’s initiatives have aimed at rolling back environmental and other regulations the White House blamed for driving up gas prices during the Biden years.
But Trump’s decision to attack Iran on Feb. 28 has driven fuel prices up dramatically, from diesel to aviation to gas that hundreds of millions of American drivers buy. The president has long argued that the United States should produce more oil and gas domestically, to insulate consumers from international fluctuations.
While the president touted low gas prices during his February State of the Union address, he’s largely avoided talking about high prices since he ordered the attack. And some of his supporters have predicted gas prices will drop as hostilities near the Strait of Hormuz dwindle and more oil tankers get through.
The EPA on March 26 issued a temporary waiver that starting May 1 will allow more ethanol-based gas to be blended into fuel. While most gas already has some ethanol blended in, the waiver will allow up to 15% nationwide, potentially lowering pump prices for a month. Typically made from corn, ethanol is made in the United States, but is often kept out of gas during the summer over air pollution concerns.
Nationally, gas prices remain below their highest-ever levels, tallied on June 14, 2022, when the national average hit $5.01 a gallon.
Drivers Adapt From Coast to Coast
For many Americans, gas prices were a driving factor in the 2024 presidential election. For Virginia resident Tim Southern, 60, today’s high gas prices are a small price to pay to support Trump. Filling up at a Wawa in Charlottesville, Virginia, at $3.99 a gallon, Southern said he’s seen no evidence people are altering their driving habits.
“I believe in what the president’s doing, so if it means me spending a little bit more gas to free some people in other countries … it’s a small sacrifice on my part,” he said.
USA TODAY’s unofficial survey of drivers found that Southern is in the minority.
Far more common were the experiences of drivers like Tasha Hill, 36. After a 700-mile-drive down the eastern seaboard from Virigina, Hill stopped to fill up near the tourist-focused International Drive section of Orlando. Hill drove down with four family members to visit the Disney and Universal parks, and had paid less than $4 a gallon to fill up as they passed through the Carolinas and Georgia.
The family rented a car for the long drive, picking a hybrid Toyota Camry that the rental car company workers assured her would save them money on gas. Seeing her first above-$4 gas of the trip – at $4.29 a gallon – Hill said she was pleased with her choice to rent a fuel-efficient car.
“That’s outrageous,” she said as she watched the gallons pour in at a Wawa.
In New Jersey, Kim Reckeweg said the high prices mean she’s adjusting her budget. Reckeweg put $10 worth into her 2015 Honda Civic as her 4-year-old grandson played in the backseat. She was thankful she paid $3.99 a gallon instead of the higher $4.19 she’d seen a mile away.
“It makes it hard to travel, to get around,” she said. She picks up her grandson in Haddon Township each day, then cares for him and two other grandchildren at her home in Washington Township, about 15 miles away.
Paying more for gas, she said, “takes away from any ‘extra’ expenses, like going out to eat once in a while.”
In New York City, prices were occasionally above $6 a gallon. At a Mobil in midtown Manhattan near Times Square, cars slowly trickled in to pumps where the price was $6.09 a gallon. Taxi driver Mamadou Kone said his hybrid Toyota RAV4 is coming in clutch with high prices, but he can’t stop driving if he wants to earn.
“I’m a driver, I don’t have a choice,” said Kone, a 61-year-old father of five from East Harlem. “Right now, we are paying the price,” he said.
Manhattan resident and floral-company worker Janael Grullon, 47, said he’s been riding his electric skateboard into work to keep his personal costs down. Luckily, his job pays for the gas to fuel his Ford Transit van, he said.
“No one is going to be able to handle it, because the prices are too high,” Grullon said in Spanish.
Who Gets Hit Hardest?
Skyler McKinley, a regional director of public affairs for AAA, said drivers typically begin shifting their driving habits once gas prices rise above $4 a gallon. A 2022 AAA survey conducted the last time gas prices rose to this level found that 64% of drivers immediately reacted, primarily by driving less, combining trips and spending less on shopping or dining out.
“Things get more dramatic as prices increase further,” McKinley said.
McKinley said the challenge for policymakers is that the people who can most afford higher gas prices – white-collar remote workers – have the easiest time adapting. The hardest-hit drivers, he said, are people who commute to minimum-wage jobs at restaurants or other workplaces where their physical presence is mandatory.
Tatiana Garcia, 23, drives her 2011 BMW 535i from her home in Centerville, Virginia, to destinations sometimes 35 miles away each day for her dog walking business, The Furry Paw Friends. Her profit margins have been shrinking as gas prices rise, Garcia said, and she’s had to lean on pet caretakers to watch faraway clients so she doesn’t have to drive as much.
She said she can also no longer afford to buy extra treats for the animals she watches and is preparing to soon raise her rates for the first time since she started the business two years ago.
“I don’t make so much money right now, because I’ve been spending more money on gas,” Garcia said. “It just sucks.”
She paid $72 to fill up her tank with about 16 gallons of premium gas on Tuesday, March 31. That’s about the cost some of her family members who own electric vehicles spend a month on charging, Garcia said.
Watching her gas pump tick above $70, Tatiana Garcia said she was thinking of buying a Tesla.
At an Exxon gas station in Philadelphia, Andre Williams watched as his 2017 Chevy Malibu took on about $60 worth of gas, up from $40 a few months ago. Williams said he’s now taking the train more often, and blamed “our current president” for the pain at the pump.
Nearby customer Daniel Perez, 37, agreed, as he paid $4.19 a gallon on March 31 to fill up his Honda CRV. Perez said he was getting his bicycle repaired nearby so he could ride it more often and avoid the high gas prices.
“I feel like it’s definitely Trump’s fault,” Perez said.
Near Denver, Breya Lewallen, 28, pulled up to the pumps of a QuikTrip to fill her Toyota 4Runner for the first leg of a 12-hour drive back to her home in Texas. Lewallen drove to Colorado to visit family with her infant child and dog, leaving her husband at home to work. Stepping to the pump, she paid with her credit card and then pretended to shield her eyes as the gas poured into her tank at $3.65 a gallon.
“Ugh,” she said as the total rose past $42. “I don’t even want to know.”
Contributing: Trevor Hughes, Dinah Pulver, Karissa Waddick, Brianna Frank, Mike Stunson, Phaedra Trethan, Eduardo Cuevas, Noe Padilla, Kaitlyn McCormick
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Outrageous’: Sky-high gas prices are changing the way Americans live
Reporting by Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
