The war in Iran has caused a spike in gas prices that is hitting California consumers especially hard, according to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA).
AAA reports that in California, the most expensive US market for gas, the average price per gallon on Monday was $5.20, compared with $3.47 nationally. The national average climbed nearly $0.50 since the conflict began more than a week ago, while in the Golden state it rose by $0.55.
Since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February, leading to intensifying violence across the Middle East, the price of oil surged to more than $100 a barrel for the first time in nearly four years. The conflict has damaged oil and gas facilities and stranded ships carrying roughly 20m barrels of oil a day in the Gulf.
About 20% of the world’s oil is shipped through the strait of Hormuz every day but the channel has essentially been closed for the last week.
True, but density, public transportation, social services, and electrification are very different in much of the US. Fuel prices hit differently depending on where you live in the world.
Maybe the US needs $11/gallon as medicine.
My hope is that the price of fuel goes so crazy that people can’t afford to drive to work, causing a general strike.
Yeah probably
True, our fuel prices are way higher here in Europe, but we have a solid public transportation network, we have walkable cities and in countries like Norway the EVs are the majority.
From everything I’ve seen about US cities and American friends I talk to, for most people, if you don’t have a car you can’t get to work. That is a thought that is hard to process for Europeans.
This is it. This is the difference. Along with everything being spread out, and fuel efficient cars being a distinct minority. “Just ride a bike” is something I’d love to do, but I’d get killed by some monster-fueled purposefully stupid prick in a truck. And that person might get a ticket. The very idea of taking a bus or train to work is pure fantasy where I live.
Norway isn’t dense. It has less population density than the US does
True.
I’m primarily talking about specific regions of the US, not the whole place. Many places in the US are famous for sprawl.
Take a city like Huston, Texas. Triple the population of Oslo, but everyone is insanely spread out, and even city centers don’t feel particularly walkable.
Fuel prices hit hard of you’re a Norwegian living outside of the cities (which is the majority of Norwegians). You really need to have a car in the countryside, as both buses and trains are few and far between. There’s still plenty of fossil-fueled vehicles out here. People keep them because they either can’t afford to make the jump over to electric, don’t trust the EV’s to handle winter well enough, or because they’re worried about the technological hurdle (Norway is an aging population).
True. Almost all new vehicles are EVs, but 70% of the existing vehicles on the road are ICE. Super impressive, but that tank of fuel is extra painful if you’re in the countryside.