American Drivers Feeling Added Pressure Thanks to High Gas Prices

November 30, 2021

At PTF, we haven’t shied away from discussing the disastrous Biden energy policies that are hurting American families and the economy as a whole. It is the impact of these policies that is raising prices on everything from groceries to gasoline. Today’s Wall Street Journal discusses the now common pressures facing drivers across the country thanks to high gasoline prices. 

Rachel Gould spends $50 on gas taking her two special-needs children on the three-hour trip from her home in Central Illinois to a hospital in St. Louis. That is roughly a 60% increase from the same time last year. 

“You have to have gas and have to pay for it either way you look at it,” said Mrs. Gould, who drives a Dodge Caravan that gets 23 miles to the gallon. 

Mrs. Gould, a 40-year-old stay-at-home mom, is one of the many Americans paying higher prices at the pump this holiday driving season. U.S. gasoline prices have climbed about 50% in a year with drivers paying an average of $3.40 a gallon for regular, up from $2.27, according to data from price tracker GasBuddy. This year’s rise is on pace to be the largest percentage increase in at least a decade. …

For Mrs. Gould, filling the Caravan’s roughly 20-gallon tank costs somewhere around $70. She’s also paying higher prices at the grocery store and even their occasional stops at McDonald’s—part of a broad increase in consumer prices that is making it harder to budget. 

“Unfortunately, there is just not a lot we can do about it,” said Mrs. Gould, who is spending around one-third of her family budget on gas. Though her husband’s compact gets better mileage, it cannot fit two wheelchairs. 

Unfortunately for Americans like Gould, the Biden administration is more interested in taking its cues from coastal elites and radical environmentalists who are far removed from the impacts their policies impose. And even more unfortunately, nothing is likely to change in the near future because the Biden administration continues to be clueless and indifferent about the problems posed by higher energy prices. Instead of working to make lives better for working Americans, Biden-era policies are only making things worse.