The average price of gas in the US rose to an all-time high of $4.106 per gallon on Monday, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused chaos in the energy markets and pushed up prices by a record-setting 49.1 cents per gallon.
A taxi driver is at a gas station in Boston.
The previous record for gas prices was $4.103 per gallon in 2008, just before the Great Recession, according to GasBuddy.
The American Automobile Association reported Monday the national average gas price was $4.065 per gallon, slightly lower than the GasBuddy average and just below the all-time record of $4.114 per gallon in July 2008.
California has the highest average gas prices at $5.34 per gallon, followed by Hawaii at $4.77, Nevada at $4.76, Oregon at $4.75 and Washington at $4.75.
Diesel is likely to break the current record of $4.846 per gallon within two weeks, according to GasBuddy, as the national average diesel price rose to $4.63 per gallon Monday.
Diesel prices hit an average of $5.69 per gallon in California, $5 in Pennsylvania, $4.94 in Hawaii, $4.85 in New York and $4.81 in Oregon on Monday.
The national average gas price went up by 49 cents per gallon in seven days in 2005, beating the previous record by one-tenth of a cent, according to GasBuddy.
The town of Vasylkiv, just outside of Kyiv, was covered in smoke on February 27, 2022, after Russian strikes.
The price of crude oil jumped to $119.75 per barrel on Monday, up about 59 percent from the start of the year, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was considering banning Russian oil imports. Russia's dependence on fuel revenue for more than a third of its federal budget is why the energy sector has largely been excluded from the sanctions imposed on Russia. Ryan Fitzmaurice, an energy analyst with Rabobank, told CNN that a U.S. ban on Russia's oil would be symbolic. The EU relies on Russia for 27% of its crude oil and leaders debated banning Russian oil. In January, the White House said it was looking for alternate fuel sources for Europe in case Russian fuel exports were cut off. The recent spike follows a months-long trend of rising oil prices.
Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, said in a statement that elevated prices will likely recover over months rather than weeks as they did in 2008. The national average price for a gallon of gas was predicted to hit a new all-time high of $4.25 by Memorial Day, according to GasBuddy.
The cost of choking off Russia from energy revenue is not surprising because of the bipartisan support of severe sanctions on Russia.
The Midwest and South Central U.S. were unaffected by gas prices. The average price for a gallon of regular gas was $3.63 in Missouri, $3.65 in Oklahoma, $3.68 in Kansas, $3.69 in Arkansas and $3.70 in South Dakota on Monday.
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