For the last six weeks, pulling into a gas station to fill up the old flivver (be it Ford, Chevy, Honda, or maybe BMW) has been an exercise in hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing pain.
The U.S. national price of gasoline jumped some 39% between Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel first attacked Iran, and its April 9 peak of $4.166 per gallon, the highest level since August 2022, according to AAA’s Fuel Gauge report.
But here’s a bit of good news. AAA’s national average has shed 14.4 cents in the last week, or roughly 3.5%, to $4.022. That means a 15-gallon fill-up that cost $62.49 on April 9 now will run about $60.33.
So, be happy. You just saved $2.16.
Oklahoma has the cheapest gas
What we now pay to fuel our vehicles varies widely in the United States, but all of us are feeling it. (Unless you’re driving an electric vehicle.) A gallon of regular gas will run you $3.373 in Oklahoma, the state with the lowest statewide average cost of gasoline, according to AAA data. And $3.315 in Oklahoma City.
The same gallon will cost $5.829 a gallon in California — and $5.922 in Los Angeles and $5.962 in San Francisco.)
The Far West, including Hawaii and Alaska, has the highest prices by far. The cheapest prices in 2026 are found in the Midwest, from Oklahoma to Minnesota.
Prices vary so much from state to state because of state and local taxes and other fees charged to fuel retailers to help pay for environmental protections.
Shady Alassar / Getty Images
In addition, the cost of transporting gasoline can boost prices. The highest-priced gas in the country these days is not in a major city but in sparsely populated Mono County in California, located east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The average price: $6.827 a gallon.
Related: Longtime oil analyst sends dire oil price message
Second is Humboldt County in far northern California with $6.301. Third is San Juan County in Washington State at $6.11. The county is a chain of islands, reachable by ferry or plane.
The three cheapest counties in the country are all in Oklahoma: Commanche County ($3.24), Cleveland County ($3.30) and Oklahoma County ($3.32).
When will oil prices drop back
We can’t say how long this mini-respite of lower prices continues. Nor can we say when oil prices and gasoline prices will fall. Historically, gasoline prices peak in the summer and fade into the year-end holidays. So downward pressure should be a factor in the fall.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently predicted gas prices will fall to $3 a gallon or lower this summer. Chris Wright, Trump’s Secretary of Energy, said it will be 2027 before we see $3 gas.
Denton Cinquerana, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks all prices petroleum, thinks this Fall is more likely.
The United States and President Donald Trump want to end the war soon and reopen the Strait of Hormuz so tankers can carry millions of barrels of crude oil and refined products, such as jet fuel and fertilizers, to customers in Asia and Europe.
The Strait is that curvy, 104-mile-long piece of water that connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and markets around the world. Today, it’s a no-man’s land blockaded by Iran and countered by the U.S. Navy.
Before the war, 20% of of the world’s oil and products passed through the strait.
But ending a war is complicated. It takes negotiations and massive doses of patience, more patience than buying or selling a 25-story office building, something the president understands.
He does understand Americans are unhappy about gas prices now and yearn for the first two months of 2026, when gasoline was mostly below $3 a gallon.
The path to lower gas prices faces a ticking clock. The new talks are coming as two-week extension of a deadline to negotiate a deal is about to run out. And President Trump has signaled his patience is thin.
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The deal that the U.S., Israel, and the countries of the Persian Gulf envision includes elements like this:
- Iran will not block the Strait of Hormuz again.
- It will not launch missiles and drones at its neighbors again. The attacks have disrupted shipping and processing of oil and natural gas.
- It will never again threaten Israel or other neighboring countries with nuclear weapons.
- It will implicitly or explicitly guarantee Israel’s fight to exist.
So far, Iran has resisted any of these terms, and the question now is if the United States launches air and missile strikes that knock out all of Iran’s bridges and power plants.
How the oil price runup has impacted us all
The war has affected not just Americans but people around the world.
Oil gas used for cooking in India has jumped in price.
Natural gas in the Middle East is the key feedstock for nitrogen fertilizers, along with phosphate rock mined in the region. The war has affected those businesses. You may see it push prices higher.
Jet fuel is in short supply, and supplies will get tighter. Airlines are having to tell investors the profit and revenue projections for 2026 have been cut to nothing because of massive price increases for jet fuel.
Worse for travelers, flights are getting canceled until the carriers understand the supply issues.
Alaska Airlines said it expects fuel costs to jump as much as 81% this year. Its first-quarter loss was $193 million, when it originally expected a profit.
Related: Is a Costco membership worth it just for gas?
