The Campaign Update: Get Ready for $150 Oil, $6 Gasoline at the Pump
It seems like forever looking bac, but it was just 15 months ago when the price for a gallon of regular gasoline at the Quik Trip convenience store where I fill up was $1.69. But then the 2020 election came and went, Joe Biden was nominally “elected” and installed in the White House, and the Trump era of cheap energy came to an end.
When I filled up on Wednesday at the same convenience store, the price for regular had risen $3.44, more than double its level under President Donald Trump. This is not a coincidence, not an accident, and the most disturbing aspect of this precipitous rise in energy costs is that it has, to quote The Carpenters, only just begun.
In our society, gasoline and diesel are the only forms of energy we consume whose retailers display current prices on big, lighted signs right next to the street. Those ubiquitous signs serve as the key indicators for consumers about the cost of literally everything they buy, because almost everything they buy is transported to market using gas and diesel. As transportation costs rise, so will the cost of food, clothing, appliances, IPhones, computers, TVs and all other consumer goods.