Gas Prices Up: Will Public Accept Even Higher Pricing?
It’s hard to say if the public will accept even higher gas pricing when the average price per gallon has risen more than a half-dollar this year and now sits at $3.81 per gallon, but a new Gallop poll found there’s room for higher gasoline prices. According to the poll, an average cost of $5.35 per gallon is the ultimate tipping point. Scroll down for more poll results.
Free Car Insurance Comparison
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
|
Written by
D. Gilson, PhD
|
|
Reviewed by
Jeffrey Johnson
|
UPDATED: Jan 19, 2021
It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right coverage choices.
Advertiser Disclosure: We strive to help you make confident car insurance decisions. Comparison shopping should be easy. We are not affiliated with any one car insurance company and cannot guarantee quotes from any single provider.
Our insurance industry partnerships don’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own. To compare quotes from many different companies please enter your ZIP code on this page to use the free quote tool. The more quotes you compare, the more chances to save.
Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about car insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything car insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by car insurance experts.
Yesterday was a motorcycle day for me. We’re experiencing near-summer like temperatures with sun-filled skies, so I simply couldn’t resist taking the bike rather than hopping into the car. And the fact that the motorcycle returns fuel economy in the range of almost 50 miles per gallon didn’t hurt in helping make my choice, either.
Fuel economy will continue to be of paramount importance if gasoline prices keep up the trend they’ve demonstrated since the start of the year. The average price of a gallon of gasoline has risen more than a half-dollar this year, and now sits at $3.81 per gallon.
Four states – Alaska, California, Hawaii and Illinois – and Washington, D.C. already have average prices over $4 per gallon, and a number of other states – Oregon and Washington in the Pacific northwest; Connecticut and New York on the Atlantic coast – are in danger of being there soon.
A new Gallop poll found there’s room for higher gasoline prices, however. An average cost of $5.30 to $5.35 per gallon is the ultimate tipping point that sees a majority of Americans cutting back on spending in other areas or otherwise making significant changes in the way they live their lives.
Despite whatever room for increased prices Americans can tolerate, the poll also found that a majority of Americans, regardless of party, want President Obama and Congress to get involved.
85 percent of all residents, 90 percent of those that lean republican and 81 percent of those that lean democrat want to see “immediate actions to try to control the rising price of gas.”
However, that only 65% of Americans believe that the president and Congress can in fact take actions that would impact the cost of gasoline makes us wonder why drivers would want government action, when some obviously don’t believe it would ultimately have any benefits.