After suffering from a significant increase, the national average gas price has begun to drop below $4 for the first time in six months. The United States has been going through record-high inflation since March 2022, impacting numerous families in the country. Nonetheless, this has created a major impact on the rising and falling of gasoline prices.

Gas originally hit a record-breaking price due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine is one of the U.S.’s primary sources of gasoline, and Russia’s attack limited America’s accessibility to crude oil. This began an unavoidable imbalance between United States’ demand and supply as well, resulting in an increase in prices of all products sold.

However, things have been looking brighter for Americans since August 2022. Despite the fact that Russia still doesn’t have the best relationship with its neighboring country, Ukraine, according to CNBC, “Some [U.S.] states have also suspended their gas taxes, which artificially pushes prices lower. But the main reason for the fall is the decline in oil prices.”

Another reason that gas prices are slightly lowering is due to the upcoming midterm elections. The White House and the Biden Administration have been facing a lot of backlash from Americans across the country as gas was at an average of $5 all summer long, a time when many families travel. In order to gain his popularity back in time for the midterm elections, Biden had to gain his popularity back.

“Gas prices have fallen every day this summer for 38 days in a row…you can find gas for $3.99 or less in more than 30,000 gas stations in more than 35 states.  In some cities, it’s down almost a dollar from last month.  We’ve been working really hard to bring the price down,” President Joe Biden said in a recent statement.

Another reason for this decline in gas prices could be due to Biden’s approval of the release of an unprecedented amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). This too will continue to aid the decrease in gas prices for the day-to-day consumer.

“The President’s announcement called to release one million barrels of SPR crude oil per day over six months. This historic release of SPR crude has provided a record amount of crude oil supply to the U.S. economy and will continue until the end of October 2022,” The U.S. Department of Energy said.

With the majority of juniors and seniors driving at Robinson, many are pleased about the decline in gas prices as well, particularly students who have to pay for their own gas.

“The gas prices dropping has been really nice. I always feel bad asking people for gas money, but gas is so expensive. Since gas has dropped, I use less of my paycheck on it, so I have more room for other things, like going out with friends. Gas is still not as low as it was before I started driving, but the price is much better than it was in the summertime,” Ella Garruto (’24) said.