Oil prices peaked at a four-year high of more than $120 a barrel, and the average price of regular gasoline in the United States reached $4.30 a gallon.
The average price for regular gasoline in West Virginia is $4.094 a gallon. Some of the highest prices, according to AAA, are $4.199 in Monongalia and Doddridge counties. Brooke is $4.232. And Pendleton County is even higher, $4.274 a gallon.
The spike in gas prices has occurred because of global market disruptions related to oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in the ongoing conflict with Iran.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she understands the pain at the pump but maintains the related conflict with Iran needs to be carried to a clear victory by the United States.
“This hurts every single West Virginia is really hard, because we have to drive, in some cases, a long way to get to work or school or the grocery store or church or wherever we need to go,” Capito said in a call with West Virginia reporters on Thursday.
“So we, you know, as most rural states, we do a lot of driving. And so $4.09 is very high. And actually, last time I filled up, which I think was maybe on Monday, it was $4.09 — and I was rather shocked.”
But, she said, “I think that the President is working day and night to try to bring this to a close, but he’s not going to leave a deal on the table that lets Iran keep developing their nuclear weapons, which is basically what Iran has said: ‘Yes, we’ll open the strait; yes, we’ll have the free flow of oil, but we’re not going to talk about developing a nuclear weapon.'”
The current conflict with Iran started in February with “Operation Epic Fury,” although the nations have been on adversarial terms since the late 1970s.
“I think it is as soon as he can wrap this up and you know, and get satisfied that Iran is no longer the danger to us and the rest of the world that they have been, I think he will,” Capito said of Trump.
“I don’t think he’s going to send boots on the ground. I don’t think the American people want that. So as soon as he can, hopefully it will put a lid on those gas prices.”