There’s some hope that relief could be on the way at the pumps.
This comes after the Biden Administration announced plans to release 1 million barrels of oil each day for the next six months from the U.S. Petroleum Reserve, in an effort to push gas prices down.
The move would free up as much as 180 million barrels of oil, the largest release in history.
“Putin’s war is imposing a cost on America and our allies and democracies around the world,” President Joe Biden said Thursday.
Drivers are hit with record gas prices as a result of disruptions to the oil market, like the pandemic and the U.S. ban on Russian oil imports.
Gas prices are up 64 cents this month in Virginia.
“Just word of that announcement yesterday seems to have had a positive impact on crude oil prices,” AAA Mid-Atlantic Spokesperson Morgan Dean said. “We want to see crude oil prices come down because ultimately that should bring pump prices down.”
However, experts warn just because the price of crude oil goes down, it doesn’t mean gas will.
“When crude spikes in price, prices go up at the pump immediately,” College of Business Dean at University of Lynchburg Nancy Hubbard said. “When crude starts to drop in price, the prices go down slowly at the pumps.”
Experts say it’s a false relief. As long as the conflict continues in Ukraine, uncertainty in the market will drive prices up.
And it’s not just gas. The surge in prices has helped push inflation to its highest point in decades.
“Gas prices impact almost everything in our economy,” Hubbard said. “It’s not just us going to the pump and filling up. It’s moving goods from one place to another.”
Experts feel the president’s move will have a modest impact. They said it can’t make up for all the oil, diesel and other fuels Russia used to sell the world.