Gasoline prices dropping, Biden ‘I did that’ stickers coming off pumps
When I bought gas this week at a little station on Market Street, I noticed that someone had pulled a Joe Biden “I did that” sticker off of the gas pump, tore it in half and put the pieces in the trash.
And it’s starting to look like whoever’s been sticking them on pumps around town might need to find a new hobby.
There’s good news out there for gasoline consumers — especially in Wichita. You may have noticed it at the pump, where prices have settled to their lowest levels since the early days of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Right now, Kansas has the second-lowest average gasoline prices in the country. Our our next-door neighbors in Missouri are No. 1, but a mere two-tenths of a cent lower than us.
According to data from the AAA auto club, the Kansas average for regular on Friday was $3.71, down from a high of $3.82 March 12.
Eleven cents? Hey, we’ll take it.
But in Wichita, the news is better. More than twice as much better.
Our March 12 average was $3.87 a gallon. On Friday, the average was $3.62 and QuikTrip, the ubiquitous local gasoline provider, was at $3.58.
A quarter a gallon decrease? Now we’re talkin’.
The reasons for the price drop are many.
The biggest is that crude oil has fallen from $129 a barrel just after the Ukraine invasion started to about $96 on Friday, which slowly trickles its way to the pump.
Also, the Ukrainians have proven more resistant to invasion than anyone thought they would be, reducing market fears of a prolonged energy crisis.
Biden’s releasing 1 million barrels a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months — not insignificant in a country that uses about 19 million barrels of crude and 8.5 million barrels of gasoline a day.
And other International Energy Agency countries, including Canada, Mexico, Germany and Japan, are also opening the taps on their rainy-day oil stockpiles.
The price drop is good but not euphoric news. Prices will typically rise a bit in summer months when families take vacations, cautions Shawn Steward of AAA.
But it could be worse. If you were in Holland, the price on the pump says $2.55. But that’s per liter, about a fourth of a gallon.
Just please don’t wish for $1.79-a-gallon gas like we had in 2020.
The only way to return to that would be another global disaster like the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed almost a million Americans so far, locked down countless businesses for months, forced commuters to work at home if they were working at all and postponed millions of family vacations.
I don’t think any of us ever want to go back there for the cheap gas.
It will be interesting to see how the political drama plays out over the next year or two.
My Republican friends were quick to blame Biden for the sharp price runup at the pumps. And my Democratic friends were quick to reply that presidents don’t set gas prices.
But if prices continue to drop and ultimately steady out at pre-pandemic levels, around $2.50 a gallon, the Republicans might just find a new market for those leftover “I did that” stickers — the Democrats.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 5:16 AM.
CORRECTION: This report has been changed since its original publication to clarify U.S. oil and gasoline usage.
