Why Gas Prices Have Climbed 16 Cents in a Week to Hit $4.43 a Gallon

• The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline reached $4.43 on September 17, up 16 cents from the week before and more than a dollar higher than the same week last year, according to AAA.
• Crude oil is holding near $100 a barrel as attacks on tankers and refineries around the Strait of Hormuz continue to disrupt Middle East oil supply for a third straight month.
• California now leads the country at $6.08 a gallon, followed by Washington, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Illinois, and Michigan among the 10 priciest state markets.

The Third Price Jump After Labor Day

Gas prices have not stopped climbing from the middle of summer onward, and the latest AAA figures show the pace picking up rather than slowing down. The national average for regular unleaded hit $4.43 a gallon on September 17, a 16-cent rise in a single week and the sharpest weekly move the pump has seen from the run-up to Labor Day. Oil analyst Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told reporters gasoline prices in the United States are the highest ever recorded for this point in the calendar year. For drivers, that means a fill-up now costs roughly $9 to $13 more than it did in mid-August for a typical 25 to 30 gallon tank, on top of the increases already baked in from spring onward.

What’s Pushing Prices Higher

The driver behind the increase is the same one that’s been squeezing pumps all summer: a military standoff around the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply out of the Persian Gulf. Strikes have escalated on both sides in recent weeks, with the United States hitting Iranian oil tankers and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps striking tankers and vessels linked to the U.S. in return. Saudi Aramco’s Jizan refining complex was struck for the second time in the past month, and the company has said it is working to route crude around a damaged section of its East-West pipeline while it restores roughly half of that line’s normal capacity.

Crude prices have swung sharply on the news. Benchmark crude spiked above $113 a barrel in early September before military escorts and rerouted tanker traffic pulled prices back down to around $100. That volatility takes weeks to fully show up at the pump, as refiners and retailers are still working through fuel bought at higher prices earlier in the crisis, which is part of why AAA’s weekly average keeps climbing even as crude itself has eased slightly from its peak.

Where the Pain Is Worst

State averages vary enormously, and the gap between the cheapest and most expensive markets keeps widening. California sits at $6.08 a gallon, its highest mark of the year, followed by Washington at $5.57, Hawaii at $5.48, Nevada at $5.19, Oregon at $5.11, Alaska at $5.07, Idaho at $4.85, Utah at $4.81, Illinois at $4.78, and Michigan at $4.75. On the other end, Indiana remains the country’s cheapest state for gas at $3.42 a gallon, helped along by a state gas tax suspension that has kept prices there well below the national average, with Texas and Oklahoma close behind in the low $3.60s and $3.70s.

Diesel has climbed just as fast. The national diesel average is close to $5.94 a gallon, and it crossed $6 nationally for the first time in U.S. history earlier this month, a threshold that raises shipping and freight costs across the entire economy, not just for truckers filling up directly. Higher diesel prices tend to work their way into the price of groceries, furniture, and anything else that travels by truck before it reaches a store shelf.

How This Stacks Up Against Recent Records

This is the third time in a month that gas prices have set a new high-water mark for the year. The national average broke a record for August at $4.10 a gallon, then broke it again heading into Labor Day weekend at $4.14. The $4.43 average now on the board is more than a quarter higher than that Labor Day peak, in the space of about two weeks, which tells drivers this isn’t a short-lived spike tied to a single holiday travel period. It’s a sustained climb tied directly to how long the Strait of Hormuz standoff drags on.

Even adjusted for inflation, $4.43 puts 2026 within reach of the all-time nominal record of $4.11 a gallon set in mid-2008, a mark that had stood for over 15 years before this year’s run of increases started breaking it repeatedly. The difference this time is the cause. The 2008 spike was tied to a demand surge in a growing global economy right before the financial crisis hit. This year’s climb traces to a supply shock in one of the world’s most important shipping chokepoints, which historically tends to resolve faster once a military standoff eases, but can also get worse quickly if the conflict widens.

What Comes Next

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has raised its second-half 2026 forecast for benchmark Brent crude by $8 a barrel, to roughly $90, citing the ongoing supply disruption. The agency’s outlook still points toward relief eventually, with crude expected to ease to an average of $77 a barrel by the second quarter of 2027 as rerouted shipping lanes and increased production from other regions offset the losses tied to Hormuz. Until that plays out, AAA’s own guidance to drivers is blunt: expect prices to keep tracking whatever happens in the Gulf on a week-to-week basis, as the market has shown it can move fast in either direction depending on how the conflict develops.

What Drivers Can Do Right Now

A few habits make a real dent in a fill-up bill while prices stay elevated. Comparing prices with AAA’s fuel finder or a station-locator app before heading out can save 20 to 40 cents a gallon between stations in the same city, which adds up to $5 to $10 per tank. Combining errands into a single trip, keeping tires properly inflated, and avoiding unnecessary idling all stretch a tank further without any change in driving style. Grocery and warehouse club fuel rewards programs, along with cash discounts many independent stations still offer, can also trim a few cents per gallon for drivers who fill up regularly at the same chain.

For anyone planning a road trip in the coming weeks, checking state-by-state averages before choosing a route counts for more than usual this year. A driver crossing from Indiana into Illinois, for example, can expect to pay more than a dollar more per gallon just by crossing the state line, so timing a fill-up on the cheaper side of a border can be worth planning around for longer trips.

AAA updates its state and national averages every day on its Fuel Prices site, and checking it before a long trip takes less time than pulling into a station and finding out the price at the pump is higher than expected. With the Strait of Hormuz situation still unresolved as of this week, drivers planning fall travel should treat any price they see today as a starting point rather than a fixed number, and budget a little room for it to move before they actually fill up.

Drivers who track their fuel spending closely are also worth watching for a broader budget squeeze this fall. Combined with auto insurance premiums that have already climbed in more than half the country this year and a diesel spike pushing up freight costs, sustained gas prices above $4.40 add another few hundred dollars a year to the average household’s transportation bill if the increase holds through winter. Households with a long commute or a second vehicle used mainly for errands are the ones likely to feel it first, as those are the easiest trips to consolidate or shift to a vehicle that uses less gas when one is available in the driveway.

Sources:

• AAA Newsroom, Pump Prices Keep Climbing as Crude Oil Remains High
• U.S. Energy Information Administration, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update
• Al Jazeera, Oil prices surge as US-Iran strikes intensify in Strait of Hormuz