Will Kamala Harris get a bump from low gas prices in the November U.S. elections?
The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 are two examples of recent global events that have caused higher gas prices. According to Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, the market is coming into a better sense of balance. So it certainly is good news for the incumbent party, potentially, that gas prices are falling, though he expects there will continue to be a lot of noise from politicians on both sides of the aisle on this issue. Wednesday saw the national average price of gasoline drop to about $3.25 per gallon from $3.31 per week and $3.45 per month. According to DeHaan, the price drop is normal for the early fall.
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There's less demand for gasoline in the fall and not in the winter because Americans don't go out as much. They can officially transition to a less expensive gasoline blend in less than a week; they refer to it as winter gasoline. According to DeHaan, there has also been a contributing factor in the recent decline in the price of oil. Oil hit $65 a barrel, its lowest price since 2021, earlier this week, which DeHaan attributed to a combination of economic uncertainty and reduced demand in China. West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US oil, reached a high of $83 per barrel in early July and was trading at about $68 per barrel on Wednesday afternoon.
The Oil Price Information Service's global head of energy analysis, Tom Kloza, meanwhile, ascribed the low oil prices to
