Gas prices in the U.S have raised to $5 a gallon, which is like a sky-high price. U.S. President Joe Biden, on Wednesday, wrote a letter to the gas companies like Exxon, Marathon Petroleum, Chevron, BP, Valero Energy and Shell, and criticized them for a lower supply of oil to rake in higher profits.
Biden mentioned that at the time of the on-going war, it is not fair that refinery profit margins above the normal were being passed on to the pockets of American families.
He further added that the deficiency of refining capacity and the very high refinery profit margins are lessening the impact of the actions taken by the US administration to address Putin’s Price Hike and are adding a huge cost burden on consumer pockets.
Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, oil prices are rising drastically. Currently, the gas price in the US hits the highest, being, $5 per gallon which is approximately 63% more than the same time last year. The crude oil price has increased up to 82% from the last year.
The oil price hike has only added to the problem of the already inflation situation in the US. Due to inflation, already the cost of essential goods and services has gone up for Americans. The US Consumer Price Index suddenly rose to 8.6% which is the highest inflation rate since the year 1981.
There is increasing pressure from the US president to the energy companies to cut down the oil cost.
The rise in the crude oil price is one issue but the main issue is that the refineries were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in many refineries shutting down their operations completely in 2020 and 2021. Hence the production has decreased and the price has increased immensely. The analysts also suggest that there is no quick fix to this gas price rise crisis.
