According to AAA, the average national gas price hit $3.79 a gallon as of Tuesday, up $0.87 from a month ago.
Michael Negron, Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress and former White House economic advisor, says relief at the pump won’t come as long as the conflict continues.
“The longer this goes, the bigger the problem it is. The main place that the American people are feeling the cost of this impact, just in an economic cost, is at the pump,” said Negron. “We could expect gas to hit four or even five dollars a gallon… that’s why the duration of this thing is probably the key challenge to think about when you’re thinking about pocketbooks.”
AAA says the West Virginia average gas price is $3.47 per gallon – up $0.62 in the past month, and local drivers are feeling the impact.
“I shudder to think how high it could go, and I don’t want to find out,” said David Disarno who was traveling through Beckley to New York. “It’s just going to cost me more to do everything and then I have less money for other things.”
Cheryl Lavoie, who stopped at the Beckley Travel Plaza on her way to Pennsylvania, says the cost of gas is making it difficult to take care of her family:
“I travel about 54 minutes each way to babysit our grandkids. And if gas prices keep going up, I don’t know what we’ll do. Everything’s going up. Everything. It makes no sense”
Negron believes the risk of a recession is real, but largely depends on the duration of the conflict.
“I think the American people should be should be concerned about how long this could last. We aren’t 100% sure why we’re there and we’re not very sure what the what the end game is like. When will we achieve success? And those two things combined to tell us that this could be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.”
According to Negron, surging gas prices aren’t the only thing causing economic inflation:
“The combination of this conflict and its impact on energy prices and then the ongoing impact of the President’s tariffs, I fear, will really ignite inflation in the months to come.”
