The price of gasoline in the US dropped below $4.50 a gallon for the first time in two months, as the global price of oil fell.
Cars line up for free gas at a Shell station in Oak Park.
The average price of gas across the country was $4.495 per gallon on Tuesday.
In the last week, prices have fallen in eight states and territories, including Washington D.C., Ohio, Texas, Arizona, California, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Kentucky.
The price of crude oil fell from $118 a barrel last month to $105.53 on Tuesday.
17th Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said that there have been more than 50 states where gas prices have dropped more than 50 cents per gallon.
Gas prices have been dropping for 34 days in a row, about 50 cents a gallon. About $25 a month is saved by that. I'm aware of the extra dollars and cents. It's a small space. We are still trying to get prices even lower.
The Labor Department reported last week that annual inflation in the U.S. rose to 9.1% in June, the highest rate in forty years. The record inflation was caused by high gas prices, which rose nearly 10% in the month of June. The drop in gas prices may offer some respite from inflation, but experts believe crude oil prices will remain elevated as the world deals with supply shocks caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is not clear how long this decline will last as the global benchmark crude oil futures have risen above $105 after falling below $100 a barrel last week. The nation's strategic reserve has been released to ease the supply crunch. On a recent trip to Riyadh, Biden pushed Mohammed bin Laden to take further steps to increase the global oil supply, something oil exporting countries have not committed to doing.
The deadline for Russia's planned maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 natural gas line to Germany is scheduled to be completed on Thursday, which will be a key moment in the current energy crisis. European leaders are concerned that Russia may permanently halt gas supplies or extend the deadline further as a response to sanctions. Robert Habeck warned that a Lehman Brothers-style collapse of Europe's energy sector could happen.
Gas prices may help drive inflation down in the near future.
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