CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For the first time in months, the national average price for a gallon of unleaded gas is below $4.
The Biden administration is celebrating the progress, but is every claim in the administration's statements about the drop true?
THE QUESTION
Is the drop in the national average gas price over the last two and a half months the biggest in 10 years?
OUR SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, this drop in the national average gas price over the last two and a half months is the biggest in 10 years.
WHAT WE FOUND
Data from the EIA and GasBuddy shows gas prices have been steadily falling for nine straight weeks.
De Haan said it's important to look at how high prices were back then: $5 per gallon the week of June 11.
"In terms of rate of decline, I mean, obviously, that's a feat that's a little bit easier to accomplish when prices had gone up so much," De Haan said. "Now we see the market unwinding some of those gains."
De Haan said over the course of the summer, gas prices fell about two to three cents a day, which is an uncharacteristically high daily decline.
"That might sound pretty mundane, but that's actually one of the more significant decreases that we've seen, because it's an average of 150,000 stations declining several cents a day," De Haan said.
The sharpest and most sustained decline in the U.S. for gas was back in 2008.
"Prices in mid-summer 2008 were $4.10 a gallon," De Haan said. "They ended the year under $2 a gallon. So really, you know, nothing is going to compare."
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