Gas prices will fall in 2024 for the second year in a row, according to GasBuddy projections shared exclusively with CNN.
GasBuddy, which had a forecast for 2023 that proved to be eerily accurate, expects US gas prices will average $3.38 a gallon in the key election year of 2024.
That would represent a significant improvement from 2023’s average of $3.51 a gallon and an even bigger drop from 2022’s average of $3.95. Gas prices skyrocketed to record highs that year as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine set off global shockwaves.
Even though the Russia-Ukraine war lingers and there is a risk the Israel-Hamas war spills into a regional conflict, GasBuddy is betting drivers will get more relief in 2024. GasBuddy expects Americans will spend about $32 billion less on fuel than in 2023 and $79 billion less than in 2022.
“Next year should represent a continued march towards what most Americans would consider normal prices at the pump,” Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, told CNN in a phone interview...
One big reason? It's one that exposes one particular Republican lie about the Biden Administration:
The United States is on pace to pump more oil than any country on record, according to S&P Global Insights.
Blockbuster US oil production worries climate scientists and undermines the argument that President Joe Biden has waged a war on US energy. It also provides a cushion for consumers against a dangerous world that is seemingly just one headline away from spiking gas prices.
“The US producing record amounts of crude oil translates to lower risk,” De Haan said.
Yes, it worries us too that producing more oil is going to contribute to the global climate crisis. That's a huge downside, and we hate to add a "but," but when you're trying to get through an unstable political year where the health of the economy may play into whether or not American democracy is lost, it might be a case of a short- term loss for a longer- term gain. Of course, there are other factors at play, and global instability might throw the projections out the window sooner rather than later. And there's always the "feels" rather than "is" voters. But we'll take this mixed bag for now.
(Image: credit WQCS/NPR, Florida)
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