OPINION
Gas Prices Keep Rising — Why? BY: JAMIE HICKEY
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n recent months, consumers have been noticing continually rising prices at the pump. With the Biden administration’s campaign promise to go green, it appears its members are acting in a hypocritical manner by trying to influence the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies to drill more oil to cool down oil and gas prices. If the administration will encourage other countries to produce more oil, then why not encourage those in the U.S. who have unused leases and permits to use them to drill oil? Since the Biden administration has taken office, gas prices have reached all-time highs. However, many factors are causing these prices. Over the past two years, we have seen a considerable price variation in the cost of a gallon of gasoline. The cost of a regular gallon of gas went from a low of $1.84 in April 2020 to a high of $3.29 in October 2021, and prices have reached nearly $4 in
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CONNECTICUT ECONOMIC ACTIVITY REPORT • WINTER 2022
California and other parts of the Northwest. It is estimated that Americans pay $430 million more every day on gasoline than they did one year ago. Numerous events have resulted in this fluctuation, the largest likely being the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the world in March of 2020 and a change in demand resulting from it. In Figure 16, we can see the price plummet from January 2020 (at $2.55 per gallon of regular gas) to April 2020 (at a low of $1.84 per gallon of regular gas). The most considerable decrease was when all lockdowns started taking effect; the average gas price went from $2.23 per gallon in March 2020 to $1.84 in April 2020 — a drop of nearly $0.40 in one month. The decrease at the beginning of 2020 was due to the decrease in gas demand and the subsequent excess supply. With most stores being shut down aside from grocery stores and other essential businesses, there was almost nowhere
