This Week in Gas Prices, the Only Thing That Matters in American Politics, Apparently – By Jordan Weissman (Slate) / Oct 21, 2022
Introducing Gassed, a semiregular look at “the pump” that could call the midterms.
The results of this year’s midterm congressional elections could decide the future of issues like abortion rights and crucial programs like Medicare and Social Security. But since a decisive share of Americans are probably going to vote based on how angry they are at Joe Biden about gas prices, Slate has decided to bring you this regular feature tracking what drivers are paying at the pump—possibly the only number that matters in politics right now, really.
Are gas prices going up or down?
Down. According to AAA, the current national average for a price of gas is $3.82 a gallon, about 8 cents lower than last week.
Why?
Gas prices have seesawed all this year. They topped out in June after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent the cost of oil soaring, then declined over the summer, as the crude market softened thanks to recession fears and low demand from China, where the economy has been hobbled by COVID-lockdowns. But much to Democrats’ chagrin, fuel costs began creeping back up last month. That’s mostly thanks to refinery outages in the West and Midwest, which occurred due to a combination of planned maintenance and freak accidents like a fire that killed two BP workers in Ohio. But prices are now easing up again now that refiners have come back online.
CONTINUE > https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/10/gas-prices-biden-approval-rating-midterms-democrats.html
