The national average price of fuel in the U.S. dropped to $3.990 a gallon on Thursday, the American Automobile Association reported. This marks the first occasion on which the price of retail gas has dropped below $4 per gallon since March, thus providing drivers with much-needed financial relief.
Although U.S. gas prices are expected to peak in the summer and only decline around Labor Day, this has not been the case in 2022, with the White House taking several measures to reduce prices in the wake of the surge that followed the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In June, US gas prices skyrocketed to a peak of $5.02.
“More work remains, but prices are coming down, and the President will continue to call on domestic and international oil producers to increase output so that they can continue to come down,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre remarked on the government’s efforts to suppress gasoline price hikes.
The White House plans to release 180 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Crude oil remains one of the main drivers of gas prices and is thus expected to assist in the suppression of high prices.
The price of crude oil on Wednesday was $92; a sharp decline from its peak price of $139.