United States consumers have spent an additional $100 billion on petrol and diesel in the six months since the US-Israel war on Iran began on 28 February, according to a tracker from Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
The added expense translates to approximately $763 per household across the country, calculated from an estimated 131 million households nationwide. The war has driven up fuel costs across all 50 states, reports Al Jazeera.
The military campaign has proved highly unpopular in the US, with a majority of Americans holding President Donald Trump responsible for the spike in fuel prices.
President Trump dismissed concerns over the rising prices during an interview with the Reuters news agency, stating, “If they rise, they rise”.
Instead, he has sought to deflect responsibility by accusing oil companies of “price gouging”. While the president initially claimed the war would last between four to five weeks, it has now entered its sixth month with no diplomatic breakthrough in sight.
According to the tracker, petrol represents the larger share of the overall cost because Americans consume significantly more of it than diesel. Petrol prices have surged by 39 per cent, rising from about $2.98 to $4.15 per gallon (equivalent to $0.79 to $1.09 per litre).
Diesel prices have witnessed an even sharper rise, climbing by more than 60 per cent from $3.67 to $5.90 per gallon ($0.97 to $1.56 per litre).
Fuel costs vary considerably by state, with the highest prices recorded on the West Coast, particularly in California. High fuel taxes and carbon pricing programmes had already been pushing up fuel costs in California before the conflict commenced.
Figures from the American Automobile Association reveal that California currently has the highest average petrol price in the nation at $5.85 per gallon ($1.55 per litre), followed by Washington state at $5.51, Hawaii at $5.39, Alaska at $5.03, and Oregon at $5.01.
Conversely, Indiana boasts the lowest average petrol price in the country at $3.43 per gallon ($0.91 per litre).
The soaring fuel costs are also driving up the price of food. Oil and gas are essential at almost every stage of the food supply chain, ranging from farm fertilisers and tractor fuel to refrigeration, cold storage insulation, plastic packaging, and truck fuel for transport.
As oil prices rise, these extra costs accumulate at each step, production, storage, packaging, and delivery, and are ultimately passed on to supermarket consumers.
In lower-income countries, where populations spend a much larger share of their earnings on food and import large quantities of grain and fertiliser, the surge in oil prices could quickly result in severe food shortages.
