{"id":817115,"date":"2026-08-18T00:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/817115\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T00:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:56:08","slug":"us-gas-prices-reach-highest-ever-recorded-for-august-amid-stalled-talks-with-iran-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/817115\/","title":{"rendered":"US gas prices reach highest ever recorded for August amid stalled talks with Iran | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

US gas prices this month are so far the highest ever recorded for August as peace talks between the US and Iran have stalled and Donald Trump<\/a> launched fresh threats against Oman.<\/p>\n

The national average price of gas was $4.06 per gallon on Monday, according to data from AAA<\/a>, $0.05 higher than last week and $1 more expensive than a year ago. In California and Hawaii, averages hit about $5.50 a gallon.<\/p>\n

Energy prices have been high since the US-Israel war with Iran<\/a> began at the end of February and the strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which a fifth of the oil passes, was blocked.<\/p>\n

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, reached $112 a barrel in March, a high not seen since 2022. While prices have since come down closer to $85 a barrel, they are still about 30% higher than a year ago.<\/p>\n

Gas prices dipped over the last few months after the US and Iran reached brief peace deals, but have started to climb back upwards as peace talks falter.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the US and Iran missed their 60-day diplomatic deadline to end the war, as both countries failed to reach an agreement on Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Trump on Monday threatened<\/a> to bomb Oman, a key strategic partner for the US that has historically served as a backchannel between the two countries, if it \u201cgets in the way\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump also indicated he was not pressing for the war to end without Iran meeting his demands: \u201cI have no time schedule. I\u2019m not in a hurry,\u201d he told Fox News on Monday.<\/p>\n

Over the past sixth months of war, Americans have shelled out an excess of $56.4bn in elevated gas prices \u2013 or $477 more per household \u2013 the congressional Joint Economic Committee, a bipartisan panel that sourced data from AAA, reported<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

Though overall inflation came down<\/a> in July, driven by a cooling of energy prices, consumer prices are still up compared with last year. Half of Americans surveyed by Harris Poll in May reported<\/a> struggling with the cost of groceries and gas, and an overwhelming majority said they believed that the US was in an affordability crisis.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, oil companies have amassed windfall profits amid the war. Eight of the biggest oil companies \u2013 Aramco, BP, Shell, Equinor, TotalEnergies, Eni, Chevron and ExxonMobil \u2013 amassed $90bn (\u00a367bn) in profits<\/a> in the three-month period March and June, the first full financial quarter since the war began. That\u2019s about $700,000 of profit every minute over the spring quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US gas prices this month are so far the highest ever recorded for August as peace talks between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-817115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}