Even if the last thing the world needs is another observation about high gas prices, the Mud Bay Blog offers this post. Mostly it’s a reminder to me that the price shown in the photo is the highest I have ever paid for a gallon of unleaded regular. Hopefully it is also the high-water mark for the recent round of gas price increases. But that’s a wish not a prediction.
I filled up both of my vehicles (an old Tacoma and a 2016 Subaru Crosstrek) last week, spending more than $140 in the process. By choice, I don’t drive larger less gas-efficient vehicles with correspondingly larger gas tanks. Otherwise, the combined bill might have topped $200. That seems like a lot of money, and I wonder how working people and small businesses are affording the killer gas prices we are seeing this spring. I have empathy for the difficulties faced by both groups. Because I’m retired, I have more control over how much I drive.
I get it that Washington, with its high gas tax and additional costs stemming from former Gov. Inslee’s 2021 Climate Commitment Act, is going to have significantly higher gas prices than most of the nation. Should we be complaining? I read today that regular unleaded is fast approaching $8 per gallon in parts of California. To repeat the question posed in the previous paragraph: how do working people and businesses afford that?
I buy most of my gas at the Shell station on Kitsap Way in Bremerton. It’s close to home, convenient, and never crowded. Not to pick on Shell, but that might be because the price there is always higher than the state-wide average and sometimes even tops the average cost per gallon paid in Seattle. The Shell gas pumps also have the best tap-to-pay credit-card readers I have ever used (are you listening, Winco?), making it so easy to buy gas now and worry later about actually paying for it.
So, is the price of gas going back down anytime soon? Not if lower prices depend on the war with Iran ending because there’s a peace agreement both sides can trust, and the Strait of Hormuz is safely open to international oil tanker traffic. While I support most of the goals of the war, my own view is that low-level hostilities with Iran will continue indefinitely until Iran has a more secular government or at least the Islamic Republic is less hardline and more trustworthy.
While I don’t want to set another new personal record when I fill up again in couple of weeks, geopolitical events might make it happen.
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