Post #5415

Gas prices just became the most honest anti-war billboard in America. Since the Iran war began, the average price at the pump in the US has jumped from about $2.90 to $3.70 a gallon — a nearly $1 surge in a month and the second‑largest four‑week spike in at least 30 years, bigger than the early Ukraine‑war jump and most OPEC crises. Only Hurricane Katrina did more damage, and that was with refineries literally underwater. For a typical driver doing roughly 1,000 miles a month, that’s up to $50 extra — $16 for a hybrid, $32 for an average car, almost $50 for a truck. There’s nowhere to hide geographically. Every state is paying at least 50 cents more per gallon, with New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado up by more than a dollar — $1.18, $1.17 and $1.06 respectively — while California flirts with the mid‑$5 range again. The underlying story is simple: the U.S.–Israel war with Iran has jammed the Strait of Hormuz, choked Gulf exports, pushed crude toward $100 and kept prices rising even after releases from strategic reserves. Lower‑income households, which spend a bigger share of their income on fuel, are getting hit hardest and will keep paying every week while officials talk about “short‑term volatility.” On paper, this is “not so bad”: adjusted for inflation, March 2026 gas is still cheaper than the peaks of 2008 or the early 2010s, and lower than at the start of the Ukraine war. The US economy is also less oil‑addicted than in 1980: almost no electricity is generated from petroleum, cars are more efficient, and EVs are taking a bigger slice of the road. But those are macro charts. In reality, millions of Americans are driving old, inefficient cars that will see the same stations, the same rising numbers, day after day — a quiet daily referendum on a war they never voted on and a foreign policy they only meet through a credit‑card receipt. #IranWar#gasprices#oil#USA#Trump#economy#MiddleEast#energy#warCost 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸