GasBuddy.com<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe average price in Palm Beach County \u2014 $4.26 per gallon \u2014 is among the highest in the state, according to the AAA data. Broward\u2019s average is at $4.12 \u2014 the state average \u2014 and Miami-Dade\u2019s is at $4.03.<\/p>\n
Monroe County, which includes the Keys, has the highest average in the state at $4.37. Escambia County, the western-most area of the Panhandle, has the lowest average at $3.67.<\/p>\n
\u201cOil prices are doing most of the driving right now,\u201d said AAA spokesperson Mark Jenkins. \u201cAbout half of what drivers pay at the pump comes down to the cost of crude oil. When oil prices spike this quickly and remain volatile, gas prices almost always follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint war against Iran on Feb. 28, the cost of crude oil \u2014 the main ingredient in gasoline \u2014 has spiked and swung rapidly. That\u2019s because the conflict has caused deep\u00a0supply chain disruptions\u00a0and cuts from major oil producers across the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Higher gas prices are impacting consumers and businesses as many households continue to face wider cost of living strains. And as drivers pay more to cover necessities like gas, many may be forced to cut their budgets in other places.<\/p>\n
More expensive fuel can also push up other spending, from utility bills to the price of many goods consumers buy each day.<\/p>\n
In the immediate future, analysts point to groceries, which have to be restocked frequently and could also see price hikes as businesses\u2019 transportation costs pile up.<\/p>\n
But hauling other cargo and packages has also been impacted. The United Postal Service, for example, is seeking a\u00a0temporary 8% added charge\u00a0on some of its popular products including Priority Mail.<\/p>\n
U.S. diesel prices \u2014 the fuel used for many freight and delivery trucks \u2014 is now going for an average of $5.45 a gallon, up from about $3.76 a gallon before the war began, per AAA.<\/p>\n
If the war drags on, it\u2019s possible that those prices could tick up even higher.\u00a0Most\u00a0tanker movement in the\u00a0key Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil typically sails through,\u00a0remains at a halt. That\u2019s led to cuts from major producers in the region who have no way of getting their crude to market. Meanwhile, Iran, Israel and the U.S. have all struck oil and gas facilities, worsening supply concerns.<\/p>\n
Reserves open in effort to cut prices<\/p>\n
In a search for some relief, the International Energy Agency pledged to\u00a0release 400 million barrels\u00a0of oil from emergency stockpiles of member nations. That\u00a0includes the U.S., despite Trump initially downplaying the need for reserve oil.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has also eased sanctions to free up\u00a0some oil from Venezuela, and\u00a0temporarily Russia. The White House also says it\u2019s waiving maritime shipping requirements under a more than century-old law,\u00a0known as the Jones Act, for 60 days.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not yet clear if those efforts will bring relief for consumers. A lot of factors contribute to gas prices.<\/p>\n
Refineries buy crude oil in advance, meaning some could be work with more expensive oil for a while, and it will take time for any new supply to trickle down to consumers.<\/p>\n
And while steep crude prices are a leading driver behind today\u2019s surge, U.S. gas prices typically tick up a bit at this time of year. More drivers are hitting the road and trying to fuel up while they can, so there\u2019s higher demand. Warming weather also brings a shift to summer blend fuel, which is more expensive to produce than winter blend.<\/p>\n
The US is an oil exporter, but it\u2019s still affected by global prices<\/p>\n
The U.S., which is a net oil exporter, hasn\u2019t seen as stark a shock as other parts of the world that rely more heavily on fuel imports from the Middle East,\u00a0notably Asia. But that\u00a0doesn\u2019t mean America is immune\u00a0to price spikes.<\/p>\n
Oil is a globally-traded commodity. And most of what the U.S. produces is light, sweet crude \u2014 but refineries on the East and West coasts are primarily designed to process heavier, sour product. As a result, the country also needs imports.<\/p>\n
Escalating geopolitical conflicts have disrupted oil flows and contributed to a surge in gas prices in the past. The U.S. average for regular gasoline climbed to its highest level of more than $5 a gallon\u00a0in June 2022, nearly four months after the Ukraine war began and world leaders imposed sanctions against Russia, a leading oil producer.<\/p>\n
Prices at the pump later fell from that record. Before Tuesday, per AAA data, the national average had stayed below the $4 mark since mid-August of 2022.<\/p>\n
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After holding just shy of the $4 a gallon mark for a couple of weeks, the floodgates broke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[558,28,30,29,114,109],"class_list":["post-212914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}