For the first time in history, the price of gasoline in the United States exceeded $5

The latest data from the American Automobile Association (AAA) shows that on June 11, local time, the average gasoline price in the United States rose to $5.
004 per gallon (1 gallon is about 3.
7 liters).

This is the first time in U.
S.
history that the average gasoline price has topped $5, up from just $
3.
077 a year ago.

Soaring energy prices have pushed inflation higher in the United States
.
Data released by the US Department of Labor on the same day showed that the US consumer price index (CPI) rose 8.
6% year-on-year in May, hitting a new 40-year high
.
Agence France-Presse called it a "devastating inflation report"
in the report.

This data means that US President Joe Biden's efforts to curb inflation have had little
effect.
Biden then pointed the finger at Big Oil, accusing them of taking advantage of the supply shortage to make huge profits: "ExxonMobil has 9,000 drilling permits, but they don't drill
.
" Why don't they drill? Because they can make more money
without having to produce more oil.
”

For Biden's statement, Qi Haihan, president of Beijing Teyi Yangguang New Energy, said in an interview with reporters: "This shows that the inflationary pressure transmitted by the rise in energy prices in the United States is already very great for Biden
.
" To solve this problem, in addition to finding ways to increase supply, release strategic reserves and adjust taxes and other relevant policy means and measures, it is also urgent to adjust the energy supply structure
.
”

Chen Jia, a research institute of the International Monetary Institute of Chinese Minmin University, told reporters: "On the one hand, it has entered the peak of summer energy demand, on the other hand, the current supply bottleneck of fossil energy cannot be solved, and two reasons have led to high international oil prices
.
" ”

U.
S.
oil prices soar 62% in a year

AAA data shows that the average retail price reaches $
5 per gallon.
That's 63 cents higher than a month ago and nearly $2 higher than a year ago, when the average U.
S.
gasoline price was $3.
07 a gallon, a year after U.
S.
gasoline prices have soared 62 percent
.
For American consumers, this is an unprecedented thing
.

The U.
S.
travel season has just begun, and consumer demand has jumped to its highest level this year, exacerbating the problem of insufficient supply
.
According to AAA data, this round of rally in gasoline prices in the United States began in mid-April, and the average gasoline price in at least 19 states in the United States broke through $5 per gallon on the 11th, mainly concentrated in the western and northeastern
United States.
Among them, California has become the highest oil price state in the United States, with an average oil price of $6.
43 per gallon
.

Patrick DeHaan, an analyst at GasBuddy, a gasoline data company, said in a statement: "Forget about $4 a gallon.
We've never been in this situation before, and there's more uncertainty
about what comes next.
”

AAA spokesman Devin Gladden also said the situation could get worse
as oil demand continues to outpace global oil supply, pushing oil prices up further.

U.
S.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously warned at a media event that gasoline prices are unlikely to fall anytime soon, and that "at least at the household level, gasoline prices drive inflation expectations higher
.
" ”

Data show that the US energy index rose 34.
6% from the same period last year, the largest year-on-year increase since September 2005
.
Among them, the gasoline index rose 48.
7%, and the fuel oil index more than doubled, up 106.
7%, the largest increase since records began in 1935
.
In addition, electricity and natural gas prices increased by 12% and 30.
1%
year-on-year, respectively.

Energy, food and housing prices have soared in tandem, largely affecting consumer spending
by lower-income households.
The National Association of Energy Aid Executives estimates that low-income households in the United States will spend 38 percent of their annual income on energy in 2022, up from 27 percent
in 2020.

In response to the rise in domestic oil prices, the Biden administration has announced the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
three times since November last year.
At the end of March, Biden announced the largest release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in U.
S.
history: 1 million barrels per day over six months, for a cumulative release of 180 million barrels
.

"Soaring oil prices are an obvious problem for the White House, but there is no clear solution
yet.
" US media quoted a poll in early June as saying that 85% of American voters believe inflation is a "very serious" or "serious" problem
.

Chen Jia judged from both supply and demand that "there is almost no evidence that international oil prices will fall soon"
.

"They make too much money"

Record oil prices have been one of the
main reasons why inflation in the United States has reached its highest level in 40 years.
With only five months to go before the crucial midterm elections, both oil prices and inflation are a serious challenge
for Biden.

For months, Biden has been trying to reassure Americans that the US administration is doing everything in its power to reduce energy prices and inflation without demining the economic recovery
.
However, the CPI rose 1.
0% month-on-month in May, much higher than the 0.
3% month-on-month increase in April; It rose 8.
6% year-on-year, the highest level
since December 1981.

An angry Biden pointed the finger at Big Oil
.
"We will make sure everyone knows ExxonMobil's profits
.
ExxonMobil made too much money
last year.
He said
while attending an event at the Port of Los Angeles.
Previously, Biden has always stressed that it was the Russian-Ukrainian conflict that pushed up the price of
gasoline in the United States.

For the reasons why US oil and gas manufacturers refused to increase production, professional investor Cheng Yu previously analyzed in an interview with reporters: "Although the profit margin of refining has increased significantly, this is the short-term impact
of various factors at present.
" The Fed is fighting inflation in full swing, and geopolitics is unlikely to last for more than
a decade.
But refineries' payback periods are long
.
Refineries that now look likely to make a profit could face serious challenges such as long-term losses or underyields for a longer period of time
.
”

"The global policy direction now is to move away from fossil fuels
.
The environmental costs of building refineries in the United States are very high
.
At the same time, due to equipment and the labor shortage that is now faced, the construction of additional refineries will lead to higher actual costs
.
Therefore, from the perspective of factors such as the investment cycle and cost environment of the refinery itself, it is uncertain, at least for now, whether it is suitable for a new refinery
in the United States.
Cheng Yu said
.

Mike Voss, chief executive of another U.
S.
energy giant, Chevron, also complained that U.
S.
government policy has long been to reduce demand
for petroleum products.
The Chevron executive also said costs are expected to increase by about 10 percent
next year as economic pressures on equipment and labor shortages continue to hurt the oil industry.

"The U.
S.
itself is not short of oil and gas resources, it's just that oil and gas companies are reluctant to continue investing in expanding output because existing energy prices are already allowing them to enjoy the benefits
.
" When the fossil energy industry gradually wants to give up the center of the stage to the renewable energy industry, accumulating more wealth and developing less existing resources is the way to survive, and then talk about how to transform and upgrade
the energy structure.
The era of 'resource development' fossil energy is rapidly changing to the era of 'industrial production' new energy, and under the background of irreversible changes in energy production and consumption patterns, no oil and gas resource company will easily 'sell' its own products at a low price
.
Qi Hailong told reporters that this is also the main reason
why the White House has recently increased its efforts to develop clean energy.

The Biden administration announced last week that it would stop imposing tariffs on solar panels in four Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines) under the Defense Production Act over the next two years as part of
its clean energy plan.