Americans are still struggling with high gas prices. The pain will likely continue this fall

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Linda French was hoping to visit her elderly brother, who is recovering from hip surgery, and her little great-nieces and nephews in New York this summer. But stubbornly high gas prices left her unable to afford to drive hundreds of miles from her Jonesborough, Tennessee home. Meanwhile, flying is also out of reach — the flight she took in March more than doubled in price just a few months later.

Instead, the retired schoolteacher makes do with FaceTime calls, but she said it’s not the same.

“You can’t hug your family,” said French, 78, lamenting that she can’t tickle her baby relatives’ toes and pinch their cheeks. “We’re all getting older. It’s hard not to see them.”

A little more than six months after the US-Iran conflict began, gas prices remain far higher than they were in late February — when a gallon of regular gas cost $2.98, on average, nationwide, according to AAA. On Sunday, drivers paid an average of $4.15 a gallon.

The average price of gas in August was the highest on record for that month at $4.07 a gallon, after crude oil prices hovered in the $80-a-barrel range as the Strait of Hormuz remained largely blocked, Aixa Diaz, AAA spokesperson, said. Last month’s average price was a dime more than in 2022, the last time prices surged, following the start of the Russian war against Ukraine.

Higher fuel prices didn’t stop Americans from hitting the road this summer, but did end a multi-year streak of big spikes in travel. After steadily increasing after the Covid-19 pandemic, travel over the Memorial Day and July 4th holidays was projected to remain essentially the same as last year’s record highs, according to AAA.

And drivers will likely continue feeling the pain this fall. The national average price for gas on Labor Day has never been above $4 a gallon, but on Sunday it was $4.15. In 2022, prices had fallen to $3.79 a gallon by the time the holiday came after hitting a record $5.02 in June of that year.

Without there being an end to the fighting in the Persian Gulf and between Russia and Ukraine , gas prices are likely to stay elevated, at least through this fall, experts told CNN.

“We’ll probably see our most expensive September, October and November, until something shifts with these geopolitical tensions,” said Patrick De Haan, petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. But he said with the latest outbreak of attacks between US forces and Iran, “that looks less and less likely.”

French doesn’t think prices will ease in the coming months. She’s already canceled plans for family trips to Washington, DC, for Thanksgiving and to New York for Christmas.

The relentlessly high gas prices are exacerbating the affordability crisis affecting many Americans. The pain at the pump is compounded by elevated costs for food, electricity and housing.

Colton Comstock, 28, opted to return home after college so he could sock away money to buy his own place and pay off his $60,000 in student loan debt more quickly. But his daily 75-mile round-trip commute to his job at a door and dock service company means he’s pumping a lot more money into his gas tank these days.

“Rising gas prices is negating the fact that I’m living at home to save money,” said Comstock, a financial analyst who lives in Johnsburg, Illinois, and recently paid $4.55 a gallon.

Determined to continue setting aside about $500 a month for a down payment, he’s had to reduce the extra funds he was funneling into his student loan account. And he’s only gone once to his family’s lake house about 100 miles away in Wisconsin — where he loves to stargaze and to talk to his brothers while they sit on the pier — instead of several times this summer.

“I’m just trying to do nothing because you can’t afford anything,” he said. “So I just try to sit at home and chill.”

And if gas prices remain high into early next year, he may have to take a more drastic step – selling his beloved 2023 Dodge Charger and buying a more fuel-efficient car.

For Linda Cook, cooling off this summer means sitting in a small, inflatable pool in her backyard instead of taking an hour-long drive to a lake. High gas prices, along with elevated electric bills and Medicare premiums, have forced the New Paris, Ohio, resident to cut back on groceries and keep her home so warm that she doesn’t sleep well at night.

A former business consultant who is now on disability, Cook has also had to cut out pedicures and buying a new swimsuit this summer — little pleasures that make her feel good.

“When you don’t have a lot of money, you learn to be happy with small things,” said Cook, whose mother and sister passed away last year. “When it gets to the point where even those small things are difficult to come by, it makes life hard.”

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琳达·弗伦奇原本希望今年夏天去纽约探望正在从髋关节手术中恢复的年迈哥哥，以及她的小侄孙和小侄女们。但居高不下的油价让她无力承担从田纳西州琼斯伯勒的家驱车数百英里的费用。与此同时，乘飞机也遥不可及——她三月份乘坐的机票，几个月后价格就翻了一番还多。

这位退休教师现在只能用 FaceTime 通话来代替，但她说这感觉不一样。

“你不能拥抱你的家人，”78岁的弗伦奇说道，她感叹自己不能再挠挠小亲戚们的脚趾头，捏捏他们的脸颊。“我们都老了。见不到他们，真让人难过。”

美伊冲突爆发六个多月后，汽油价格仍然远高于2月底的水平——据美国汽车协会（AAA）的数据显示，当时全美普通汽油的平均价格为每加仑2.98美元。而周日，司机们平均支付的油价为每加仑4.15美元。

美国汽车协会（AAA）发言人艾克萨·迪亚兹表示，由于霍尔木兹海峡基本处于阻塞状态，原油价格徘徊在每桶80美元左右，导致8月份汽油平均价格达到每加仑4.07美元，创下当月历史最高纪录。上个月的平均价格比2022年高出10美分，2022年是油价上次飙升的年份，当时正值俄罗斯入侵乌克兰战争爆发之后。

尽管油价上涨并未阻止美国人今夏驾车出行，但却终结了多年来出行量持续大幅增长的趋势。据美国汽车协会（AAA）预测，在新冠疫情后持续增长的出行量，在阵亡将士纪念日和7月4日独立日假期期间，出行量预计将与去年创纪录的水平基本持平。

今年秋季，司机们可能还会继续感受到油价上涨带来的压力。劳动节当天，全国平均汽油价格从未超过每加仑4美元，但周日却达到了每加仑4.15美元。2022年，汽油价格在6月份创下每加仑5.02美元的历史新高后，到劳动节时已回落至每加仑3.79美元。

专家告诉 CNN，如果波斯湾和俄罗斯与乌克兰之间的冲突不结束，天然气价格可能会保持高位，至少在今年秋季是如此。

GasBuddy的石油分析师帕特里克·德哈恩表示：“我们可能会看到9月、10月和11月油价最高，直到地缘政治紧张局势有所转变。”但他表示，随着美伊军队之间最近爆发的冲突，“这种情况发生的可能性越来越小”。

弗伦奇认为未来几个月物价不会回落。她已经取消了感恩节期间全家去华盛顿特区以及圣诞节期间去纽约的旅行计划。

持续高企的汽油价格加剧了许多美国人面临的经济负担危机。加油的压力加上食品、电力和住房成本的上涨，更是雪上加霜。

28岁的科尔顿·康斯托克大学毕业后选择回家，这样他就可以攒钱买房，并更快地还清6万美元的学生贷款。但他每天往返75英里（约120公里）去一家门窗装卸服务公司上班，这意味着他现在要花更多的钱在汽油上。

“汽油价格上涨抵消了我为了省钱而住在家里的事实，”康斯托克说道。他是一名金融分析师，住在伊利诺伊州约翰斯堡，最近汽油价格为每加仑 4.55 美元。

为了继续每月攒下大约500美元作为首付，他不得不减少原本存入学生贷款账户的额外资金。而且，今年夏天他只去了一次位于威斯康星州、距离他家大约100英里的湖边小屋——他喜欢在那里观星，和兄弟们坐在码头上聊天——而不是像往年那样去好几次。

“我什么都不想做，因为什么都负担不起，”他说。“所以我就待在家里放松放松。”

如果汽油价格在明年年初仍然居高不下，他可能不得不采取更激烈的措施——卖掉他心爱的 2023 款道奇 Charger，买一辆更省油的汽车。

对琳达·库克来说，今年夏天消暑的方式是在自家后院的小型充气泳池里泡澡，而不是开车一个小时去湖边。高昂的汽油价格，加上不断上涨的电费和医疗保险费，迫使这位俄亥俄州新巴黎市的居民减少食品开支，并把家里的温度调得很高，以至于晚上睡不好觉。

库克曾是一名商业顾问，现在因病休假，今年夏天她不得不放弃做足疗和买新泳衣——这些小小的乐趣都会让她感到快乐。

“当你没多少钱的时候，你会学会享受生活中的小确幸，”库克说道，他的母亲和妹妹去年去世了。“当连这些小事都难以获得时，生活就变得艰难了。”