Gas Prices Are Starting To Dip
Mohamed Bughrara
According to AAA, after months of rising gas prices and a record high in mid-June, the average price of regular unleaded gas in Pennsylvania fell to $4.738 per gallon in mid-July. The state’s average price for regular unleaded gas was $4.845 a week earlier, while it was $5.068 just last month.
Part of the price drop can be attributed to the Biden Administration’s efforts in recent weeks, having taken significant action to address high energy costs by cracking down on price gouging by large oil companies and releasing one million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve every day for six months – a historic move to lower prices.
Additionally, President Joe Biden has asked Congress to halt federal gas and diesel taxes for three months.
The price of gasoline at the pump is affected by crude oil prices, global supply and demand, and the cost of transporting crude oil to refineries, which has seen a decline, and delivering it to local stations.
The Democratic president urged states to suspend their own gas taxes or provide similar relief, and he publicly chastised the energy industry for putting profits ahead of production. To actually provide comfort to Pennsylvania families, the Republican-controlled state legislature would need to take additional steps.
Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, a Democrat from Luzerne County, noted that oil companies’ 300 percent profits were “totally unpatriotic.”
The Administration is continuing to work with international partners to release an additional 240 million barrels of oil in order to drive down global oil prices. In the long term, the administration is also looking into increasing access to biofuels such as E15 in order to increase supply and reduce prices at thousands of gas stations across the state and country.
Reprinted from Northwest Lake Times
