Gas Prices Break Record for Third Time in 2022

Josh ChristensonMay 17, 2022

U.S. gas prices have broken records for a third time in 2022, according to AAA.

The national average hit $4.52 on Tuesday, 15 cents higher than the all-time high hit last Tuesday. The record was broken for the first time in March at $4.33 per gallon.

The Biden administration has battled rising fuel prices amid surging inflation and ongoing disruptions to the economy caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Inflation has remained at a 40-year high since December.

Liberal economists have suggested President Joe Biden’s decision to pass trillions of dollars in federal stimulus caused skyrocketing inflation. Former Obama economic adviser Steven Rattner criticized Biden in March for not taking responsibility for the move.

“This is Biden’s inflation and he needs to own it,” Rattner said after Biden blamed the surging costs on Russian sanctions.

Lawrence Summers, who served as director of former president Barack Obama’s National Economic Council, similarly has blamed Biden’s American Rescue Plan for record inflation.

Following his inauguration, Biden limited domestic energy production by closing the Keystone XL pipeline and placing a moratorium on new U.S. gas leases. In 2022, Biden’s Interior Department also banned large offshore oil and gas leases in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.

Before Russia’s invasion, Biden blamed other factors, including supply chain disruptions and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, for rising prices.

Former Obama Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday the United States is apparently headed for “stagflation” under Biden, predicting “a period in the next year or two where growth is low, unemployment is at least up a little bit, and inflation is still high.”