Gasoline Prices Up Due to Global Supply-Demand Issues, Russian Invasion of Ukraine

U.S. presidents have little control over the price that consumers pay for gasoline. As the Energy Information Administration explains, gasoline prices are mainly affected by the price of crude oil, a fossil fuel that is refined into gasoline. And the price of crude oil is set on the global market, based largely on worldwide supply and demand. 

When economic activity declined sharply in the U.S. and other countries early in the COVID-19 pandemic, global demand for crude oil declined along with it, leading to a dramatic drop in the price of crude oil and gasoline, and, consequently, a drop in new spending and investments by oil companies. Then, as the global economy began to recover, and people began to resume their regular activities, including travel, global demand for crude oil increased rapidly while the global supply was not able to keep pace.