Pain at the Pump: One Party Owns High Gas Prices

President Donald Trump has long blamed high gas prices on Democrats and his predecessor in the White House, Joe Biden. Now House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is singing the same tune. Are they right? Well, it may not feel like it right now, but that just goes to show how short our memories really can be when it comes to comparing pain at the pump both past and present.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, Johnson told the press that the issue of Iran getting a nuclear weapon was “taken care of.” But in his next breath, he blamed his colleagues across the aisle for exorbitant fuel costs, saying, “and now we got to get gas prices down. But I want to remind you as well: There’s another big factor of why gas prices are high. This is the result of bad Democrat policy.” So, which is it – Trump’s war in Iran or the long-term effects of Democratic policies? Let’s look at the data and find out.

Gas Pump Pain by President

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) tracks the national average price of gas weekly since 1990. Glancing over their data is depressing; the overall trend of gas prices through the years – as with just about everything else, it seems – is decidedly upward. But if we look at the last four presidencies – from Barack Obama taking office in late January of 2009 to just last week – things get interesting. Over eight years, Obama’s best number was $1.724 a gallon in the week of Feb. 15, 2016. His worst came the week of May 9, 2011, a whopping $3.965 (interestingly enough, exactly what gas is right now at the nearest gas station to this author). Then came 2017 and Donald Trump’s first term in office. His best price was $1.773 in late April of 2020, just pennies above Obama’s lowest. His worst was $2.940 in June of 2018 – more than a dollar less than his predecessor’s high.

Free with the Daily Briefing

85Essays

Unravel the Constitution

Hamilton, Madison & Jay’s complete case for America, free and searchable in the Publius Reader.

Join Free & Read

Free with the Daily Briefing. Unsubscribe anytime.

Now, when it comes to laying blame or credit at the feet of a president, both men were well into their presidencies for their bests and their worsts. That wasn’t the case for Joe Biden, whose lowest price was the very week of his inauguration. The national average for a gallon of regular on Jan. 25, 2021, was $2.392, and whether you want to be generous and give him that number or not, things got progressively worse as his term went on, eventually reaching a high of $5.006 in June of 2022.

President Trump’s second term saw a low of $2.779 in January of this year and a high of $4.500 in May of this year. Gas never fully recovered from the Biden era “green” regulations, but it came close – only for the war with Iran to drive up oil prices yet again. But even now, as bad as it is and with folks complaining as much as they are, gas isn’t as expensive as it was this May – and even that wasn’t nearly as bad as things got right smack in the middle of Biden’s presidency.

Red State, Blue State

Now let’s zoom in just a bit. For current averages by state, we’ll leave the federal agency and head to the private sector. GasBuddy and AAA both maintain lists, and while their numbers vary slightly, the order remains the same. (By the way, AAA says the national average for regular as of Sept. 17 was $4.4386, still south of May’s high).

So, which states have the most expensive gas right now? Let’s list the top ten: California, Washington, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Alaska, Michigan, Illinois, Idaho, and Utah. What you might have noticed about that list is that only three are red states. In fairness to the remote nature of both blue-state Hawaii and red-state Alaska, we can probably pull them from the list and just say that two of the top eight are GOP strongholds.

How many blue states are in the cheapest ten? Let’s see: Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Indiana, Oklahoma, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and South Carolina. So none. Not one blue state, and only one somewhat recently purplish swing state. And while Georgia may be turning blue nationally, that’s simply not the case at the state level, where the sort of regulations and taxation that directly affect a state’s fuel costs are decided. The Peach State has been run by a Republican governor and State Senate majority without break since 2003, and a Republican State House majority since 2005. That’s more than 21 years of unbroken GOP trifecta.

This trend doesn’t just exist at the extremes. Of the most expensive 25 states in the Union, 20 are either blue or purple – or very recently have been. Of the cheapest 25, only eight fall in that same category, and one of them is the aforementioned very red (at the state level) Georgia. So it seems there really is one party that owns high gas prices – and its favorite color is blue.