US gas prices hit an average of $4 a gallon again

https://apnews.com/article/gas-prices-iran-war-4-gallon-4b82825734ec3ded192351e53a4be69e

66•geox•16h ago

Comments

petcat•16h ago

Crazy how cheap gasoline is in USA. $4 is still basically half as much as anywhere in Europe even when there isn't a war.

VWWHFSfQ•16h ago

Well the US could just pump their wells and outproduce the entire rest of the world in crude oil and refined products like gasoline if it wanted to. Or if it was forced to.

dgellow•15h ago

Isn’t that what it already does? At least in 2025 the numbers I see have the US as the top producer

atif089•15h ago

It's cheap but you also travel a lot in the US. Specially in the southern states because everything is so far.

Anecdotal reference, my children's school is roughly 3 miles, so I spend a gallon of gas every day with 2 round-trips.

That number was zero in Netherlands because all schools are either walkable or bike able.

Supermarkets and restaurants are 5 miles away easily.

Heck, my neighbor (door to door) is 0.4 miles.

gib444•15h ago

> Anecdotal reference, my children's school is roughly 3 miles, so I spend a gallon of gas every day with 2 round-trips.

12mpg! What do you drive?

giacomoforte•15h ago

Lots of EU people are now travelling longer distances due to housing prices and job relocations.

My last commute in Germany was 1.5 hr one way and some of my colleagues had 2.5 hr commutes. Hybrid hours though.

ryankrage77•15h ago

> roughly 3 miles, so I spend a gallon of gas every day with 2 round-trips

You get 12mpg?

tonyedgecombe•15h ago

Two cold starts a day and a vehicle larger than a WW2 tank. Sounds believable.

swiftcoder•15h ago

> You get 12mpg?

It's the USA, so he's probably dropping the kids to school in a pickup truck...

TOMDM•14h ago

12gpm

nozzlegear•

giacomoforte•15h ago

True although a big component of the energy prices in Europe are due to policy driven taxation. There is a huge difference in intra EU petrol prices from around 6$/gal to 10$/gal.

sajithdilshan•15h ago

yep, that' like 0.92 EUR per liter and in Germany average price is around 2.3 EUR per liter

KingOfCoders•15h ago

Yes, taxes. This is more a philosophical thing, high taxes, high cohesion society, low taxes, everyone on their own. Germany especially after WW2 made the decision for a high cohesion, compromise society (which looks to be at it's end - not society, but high cohesion and solidarity, many want lower taxes).

sajithdilshan•15h ago

Lately it feels like in Germany people are paying high taxes, but still everyone is on their own.

masklinn•15h ago

A big part of it is taxes, European countries tend to tax fuel pretty heavily.

If heating oil is still a thing where you are, compare its prices to diesel (especially historically). They’re nearly the same product, the difference is almost entirely fuel taxes.

consp•15h ago

We used to have red diesel for agricultural use which was tax exempt. So they added a coloring agent which would make your tank red and thus noticeable if you used it in a regular car.

OtherShrezzing•15h ago

In the UK, farm vehicles use a specially dyed Red Diesel, which is the same liquid with a chemical added to it to turn it red. It’s taxed at a much lower rate, so you’ll sometimes pass petrol stations selling two Diesel from two different pumps, one of which is around half the price of the other.

If you’re caught running red diesel on a normal carriageway, the penalty can be steep.

walthamstow•15h ago

Apparently cat litter gets the red out and nobody ever gets dipped anyway

fifilura•15h ago

What could possibly go wrong :)

Filter your diesel through cat litter in your garage and fill up your £60k mercedes.

Feels like extra work I would really enjoy doing and also the wonderful smell.

And I can probably re-use the cat litter for pesticides, so i don't need to worry about disposing of it.

But otherwise i would probably recommend against it.

laszlojamf•15h ago

Americans also drive A LOT more than Europeans on average, and generally (is my suspicion at least) with a lot bigger/less efficient engines

Lwerewolf•15h ago

Not too sure about the engines as of late. Bigger and heavier vehicles - yes, but still mostly rural/highway, and at way lower speeds than the EU. Overall, IMO it's just the distances involved.

ponector•12h ago

Lot's of European cars have 3 cylinders instead of American V8.

cpburns2009•12h ago

The majority of American ICE vehicles are 4-cylinder, not 8.

Tade0•15h ago

Driving isn't nearly as important in Europe though.

American households spend 16% of their income on transportation, while European 11% on average.

https://itdp.org/2024/01/24/high-cost-transportation-united-...

In absolute numbers the gap is considerably wider due to differences in salaries. And all that while cars and fuel are significantly cheaper in the US.

In the co-working space I rent there are around 50 parking spots and half as much bicycle stands. In the warm period between the solstices the latter is packed and I have trouble finding a stand.

I started cycling mostly because they removed the free gravel parking area not counted in the usual spots, but I've found I don't miss driving as much as I thought I would.

wasfgwp•13h ago

The majority (60-70%) of Europeans still commute by car. Distances might be shorter and their cars might use less fuel but on the whole its still more appealing option for most people (despite quite a few countries trying to actively change it by making it more expensive and leas convenient).

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

ZeroGravitas•15h ago

There's a Jevons Paradox type thing where they ended up spending roughly the same to travel a mile due to Japan or the EU pushing for efficiency due to needing to import the fuel (might be visible in California too due to them fighting their geography that causes smog).

Possibly the EU is pulling ahead on price per mile now with the shift to EVs.

hobo123•14h ago

Wait until you hear about German electricity prices...

(household elec is about 30-35c/kWh, public charging stations for electric cars often charge 60-70c/kWh, no joke, although I think some vendors now offer 40c charging with a subscription)

ZeroGravitas•13h ago

Those household prices should still put a German EV substantially ahead of the average new US vehicle in fuel cost per mile.

If they did all their charging at 70 they'd probably lose on cost to a US car (or a German diesel) but be equal to a German petrol car.

I think Germany has a cultural thing with smart meters which are mandatory for the ultra cheap charging available in many EU countries but it appears that you can get still those rates in Germany and pay about half what you quote, expanding the gap with the average US cost per mile.

nozzlegear•10h ago

You're comparing EV charging prices to US fuel prices though, that's not a fair comparison. I live in the US and have an electric car, which I charge at home on my municipal's grid. The rate is a whopping 10.5¢ per kw/h.

trescenzi•13h ago

SirFatty•12h ago

And your point is what exactly?

stasomatic•5h ago

It's not cheap when your budgeting depended on how much it cost before. Americans are mostly poor, however else we look to you across the ocean.

We don't have cool trains and double-deckers that you guys are accustomed to. Different can of worms, I know. Our own doing.

throw8394498383•16h ago

It should be $200 per gallon, we need to reduce depenency on petrol!

vitalyan8184•16h ago

then you will pay $200 a day for groceries.

TurdF3rguson•15h ago

Yeah but just think how fast those electric trucks would roll out. I can live on what's in my pantry for a few months.

packetlost•10h ago

I don't think electric trucks are actually ready for the realities of long haul trucking, especially in a country as expansive as the US.

TurdF3rguson•5h ago

They're not ready, that's the point. An incentive like $200 gas is what's missing.

packetlost•3h ago

No, I think the technology fundamentally is not there and a decade away even with stronger financial incentives (of which there are already plenty). Between range, charge times, and worst of all: weight. A huge percentage of loads are operating at the limit of what is legally allowed on highways and it's strictly enforced. If you increase the baseline weight of the vehicle substantially, as you must with current battery energy densities, you decrease what can be carried by a single truck proportionally.

What will actually happen is literally everything will get more expensive.

accountofthaha•16h ago

That is 0.923 Euros a Liter according to Google.

That's dirt cheap.

fabian2k•15h ago

How many liters per 100 km does a typical US car consume?

accountofthaha•15h ago

I have no idea, and what do you mean by 'typical US car'? Like a US car model or just the fact Americans drive more?

A lot of Europeans do drive as much as Americans do, like me and truckers etc. Having 2,34 a liter here in NL makes that a pain in the arse.

Also: using more fuel on average doesn't invalidate that American fuel, compared to Europe, is dirt cheap.

Edit: also wanna add there are many 'American' cars on the road here, like Ford F-150s etc. They are imported, but have the same fuel consumption as the US variant, as being the same as the US variant.

seszett•15h ago

> there are many 'American' cars on the road here

I'd say the Netherlands is the exception here, almost all such cars that I see on the roads (mostly in France) are from the Netherlands, along with some from Belgium.

They are also mostly driven by maniacs apparently.

stasomatic•5h ago

My wife drives a VW that's built locally in Tennessee. The engine is from Mexico, the transmission used be from Japan. I think it's a Korean unit now produced on a license.

Optimistically, it drinks about 11L per 100KM. Stop and go will severely increase consumption.

It's a large car to you, but it's kind of midsize here.

hnfong•15h ago

Still cheaper than Cola

inigyou•15h ago

Where are they getting it? Four weeks ago, the president said that in four weeks the country would run out of oil. Russia already ran out of gasoline.

muzani•15h ago

Much of the time, these estimates are just extrapolated. Someone out there must be producing more oil when there's a shortage.

Xalutiono•15h ago

Its China. They slashed oil imports massivly. They use their reserves (as a lot of other countries also do) to help asia.

AlfeG•14h ago

> already ran out of gasoline

A bit of exaggeration there.

inigyou•14h ago

Why can't people buy gasoline in Russia?

t0mpr1c3•10h ago

Ukrainian drones took out the refineries.

999900000999•15h ago

Good thing we have a subsidy to encourage people to buy EVs.

Ohh wait…

I suspect the price will be directly subsidized to keep folks happy. Since we’re in wacky world this subsidy will be inconsistent depending on where you are.

Blue States will be left with gas going to 6$ or more and Red States will probably have prices subsidized down to 4$.

tencentshill•11h ago

That has already happened. Lower state gas taxes and friendly to refineries on their land = cheaper gas. Oil is already heavily, heavily subsidized: https://e360.yale.edu/digest/republican-spending-bill-fossil...

That one alone is over $100 per person per year, so we all paid extra, even those who don't drive.

Even with all that we're still at $4/gal.

999900000999•8h ago

Here’s a more direct example.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/07/08/trum...

Looks like the gas stations are selling at cost or taking a small loss.

amelius•15h ago

As long as memory prices stay low.

Oh wait.

blitzar•13h ago

The price increases will continue until morale improves.

master_crab•15h ago

I wonder what happens to that gas price once the SPR can no longer be drawn from?

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W...

cucumber3732842•15h ago

They become volatile. The SPR is a short term buffer.

impure•14h ago

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Also will be interesting what happens when the SPR runs out.

ambientenv•14h ago

A somewhat related discussion on this topic [1].

[1] - https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/the-oil-price-myste...

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