Gas prices leave Brooklyn
drivers, businesses feeling
infl ation pain at the pump
THE NATIONAL AVERAGE GAS PRICE DROPPED TO $2.09 PER GALLON TWICE IN NOVEMBER OF 2020, THE LOWEST RECORD OF THE LAST
18 MONTHS, ACCORDING TO THE EIA. NOW BROOKLYNITES ARE PAYING $3.63 PER GALLON AND UP. PHOTO | BY XIMENA DEL CERRO
COURIER LIFE, MARCH 4-10, 2022 25
BY XIMENA DEL CERRO
New Yorkers are continuing
to feel the burden of rising
gas prices, as the cost to fi ll
up their vehicles has continued
to rise at an accelerated
pace for the last two weeks —
though, according to experts,
the cost can go either way in
the near future.
The typical gas station
signs now read $3.63 dollars
per gallon or more in Brooklyn,
which represents more
than a dollar increase since
February of 2021. Fuel prices
have reached their highest
since 2014 around the country.
The insecurity brought
by news last Saturday on the
Biden Administration pausing
new federal oil and gas
drilling leases over a dispute
with Republican-led states in
court came after drivers were
already worried.
Now, Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine could halt imports
from the world’s second largest
fuel exporter, and have
sent prices skyrocketing in
Europe as countries around
the world scramble to fi nd alternatives.
“It is frustrating that our
economy and our lives are
still so dependent on gas or
diesel prices in 2022,” said
39-year-old truck driver
Roger Stuart, who drives a
2017 Freightliner Cascadia
across New York State. “Renewable
alternatives are not
coming fast enough.”
Making matters worse
for long-haul drivers, prices
on highway stations outside
the city are even higher than
within the Big Apple.
The reason behind the recent
surge is a combination
of uncertainties from around
the world.
The fear of repercussions
from a European land war, as
well as the stalled talks to renew
a version of the Iranian
nuclear deal (known as the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action), has experts fretting a
potential energy shortage, as
American fuel reserves would
only cover a few weeks’ needs
since the market recovered
after the pandemic tanked
the oil market, according to
Sarah Emerson, the president
of the oil consultancy Energy
Security Analysis.
Historically, global oil
price trends hit consumers’
pockets within a week or two.
One glimmer of hope came
from the January projections
from the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA),
which predicted that gasoline
demand growth would slow
down through 2022, driving
prices down in the next few
months.
Prices are expected to average
at $3.06 dollars per gallon
this year, which marks an
increase from the $3 dollars
average in 2021 — but is still
lower than last year’s high of
$3.43 in the Five Boroughs,
according to the New York
State Energy Research and
Development Authority. This
trend is expected to continue
and keep prices dropping
down to $2.80 dollars in 2023,
nationwide.
The EIA forecasts that
there will be more driving
in the U.S. in 2022 and 2023
than there was before the COVID
19 pandemic, but that
will be offset by the increase
of more fuel-effi cient cars,
which will ultimately slow
down the growth of gas demand.
And for Brooklyn motorists,
the increase in gas prices
may be a major factor in lowering
total demand.
“What I have noticed in the
last week is that the same volume
of people come to get gas,
but they get less than they
used to,” said 48-year-old Gigi
Clair, who has worked at a gas
station on the corner of Bedford
and Atlantic avenues for
the last eight months. “People
might be running tighter
on what they can afford and
keeping their fi ngers crossed
until they make it home.”
Clair has stopped driving
her car to work since the
price surge, and says she will
continue to take two buses
to get back home unless gas
prices drop back down to $2.75
dollars.
For others, however, public
transportation is not an
option.
Cristian Hidalgo, 42, is an
Uber driver living in Crown
Heights. He had to drive 4.4
miles before starting his
workday to get to a gas station
in Greenpoint, where gas
prices reached $3.47 dollars
on Thursday — slightly less
than the $3.63 dollars per gallon
at the stations in his area.
“I wouldn’t go out of my
way if this was only happening
for now, but it has been
coming for a while and it
seems like it might get much
worse,” he said.
There are talks in Washington
of suspending federal
taxes on gasoline, which
could help lower gas prices
at the pump, at least for a
while.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of
Oregon is putting a suspension
on federal taxes on gasoline
on the table, and there
is growing bipartisan support
for the idea of a “Gas Tax
Holiday” — though the White
House has not vocally supported
the idea yet.
Yet the initiative of such a
tax break may not be enough
to extinguish the problems
caused by the recent global
confl icts, which, unfortunately
for price-wary Brooklynites,
comes at the same
time that infl ation is also on
the rise. According to some
estimates, infl ation is kicking
in faster than it has in almost
40 years.
Rising oil prices can account
for nearly 30 percent
of the infl ation that the U.S.
has seen since the pandemic
began, according to market
strategist Daryl Montgomery.
That phenomenon has led
to an increase in costs for everyday
items — meaning that
gas prices are just one of several
headaches ordinary citizens
must deal with.
“Between electricity bills
coming in more and more expensive
and gas costing more
every day, I don’t even know
what I can afford at the supermarket
anymore,” said
58-year-old Lorna White, a
Bedford-Stuyvesant-based
teacher and mother of three.
A version of this story ran
on amNewYork as part of a series
examining the impact of
infl ation on the working New
Yorker and local businesses,
titled “Everything is Too
Damn High.”