After months of rising prices at the pump, the American consumer is finally starting to feel some relief thanks to the drop in oil prices, which have fallen by one-third since October (with the US benchmark for crude prices briefly dipping below $50 a barrel this week before reports that Russia had accepted the need for production cuts helped pushed crude futures higher on Thursday).
Not long after prices climbed above $4 a gallon at some gas stations in California, the national average gas price has fallen for seven straight weeks to $2.53 a gallon, its lowest level since March.
And Bloomberg is reporting that at least one gas station in 20 states is selling sub-$2 gas. The cheapest gas in the country can be found at Buc-ee’s station in Denton, Texas, where one gallon costs just $1.69, according to GasBuddy.
Global oil prices have plunged as US waivers have allowed Iran to continue exporting oil, removing exaggerated anxieties about a possible supply crunch. Meanwhile, climbing output in the Texas oil patch, as well as accelerating production in Saudi Arabia and Russia, has raised fears about a glut.
Lower prices could save Americans $125 million a day compared with what was being paid in early October, according to one analyst quoted by Bloomberg, a phenomenon that Trump has said would have the same stimulative impact as another tax cut.
But the upshot of the drop in prices is that by badgering OPEC to cut production and leveraging the Khashoggi scandal to pressure its de facto leader, Trump has once again succeeded in bringing home a win for the American people.
You just can’t win with the Fake News Media. A big story today is that because I have pushed so hard and gotten Gasoline Prices so low, more people are driving and I have caused traffic jams throughout our Great Nation. Sorry everyone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018
#SorryNotSorry
via RSS https://ift.tt/2zvLj02 Tyler Durden