The national average price for regular gasoline jumped to a new all-time high of $4.37 a gallon on Tuesday, breaking the previous record set in March by four cents, according to AAA.
The new record, which isn't adjusted for inflation, comes as rising prices put pressure on the Biden administration to help consumers. Diesel prices also hit a new high of $5.50 a gallon.
- President Biden is expected to announce a new plan on Tuesday aimed at helping Americans mitigate the costs of inflation.
- He will contrast his plans to lower costs for American families with those offered by congressional Republicans, Axios' Hans Nichols writes.
The price of gas has remained high since Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupted energy markets and drove up costs.
- U.S. oil prices fell on Monday, though gas prices typically lag behind the price of oil.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release April's consumer price index on Wednesday morning.
- An 18.3% jump in gas prices from February to March helped drive headline CPI to its highest annual rate since December 1981.
U.S. natural gas soared last week, as the war in Ukraine continues to inject a fear premium into global energy markets.
Prices for U.S. benchmark Henry Hub natural gas — named for a pipeline junction in Louisiana where physical delivery occurs — jumped more than 10% last week alone, to over $8 per metric million British thermal units.
President Biden said Tuesday that addressing inflation is his "top domestic priority" as midterm elections loom.
"I want everyone to know that I'm taking inflation very seriously and it's my top domestic priority," Biden said in remarks, where he also blasted Republicans' plans to combat inflation.
- Biden slammed GOP plans, including those from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), which Biden said would raise taxes on 75 million American families.
- "The bottom line is this: Americans have a choice right now, between two paths, reflecting two very different sets of values," Biden said.
"I plan to tax inflation and grow the economy by lowering costs for working families, giving workers well deserved raises, reducing the deficit by historic levels, making big corporations and the very wealthiest Americans pay their fair share," Biden said.
- He added that a "once-in-a-century pandemic" and "Mr. Putin's war in Ukraine" are the leading causes of inflation.
- "The bottom line is easing these bottlenecks and making our supply chain more secure, is a major focus of my economic strategy," he said.
"Biden might be living in an alternate reality, but voters are not, which is why they solely blame Biden and Democrats for the rising prices they see for everyday goods, gas, and groceries," the Republican National Committee said in a preemptive statement.
- "The economy is on the ballot in November, and voters know Biden and Democrats are only making it worse," said RNC chair Ronna McDaniel.
Biden's remarks come as gas prices hit a new all-time high on Tuesday and rising food prices are slowly changing Americans' grocery store shopping habits.
- Biden, who once insisted inflation was "transitory," is now talking about rising prices at nearly every opportunity, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.