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Gas prices in the United States have reached their highest levels in years, as the impasse between the U.S. and Iran continues after nearly nine weeks of war.

Iran responded to the U.S.-Israeli attack by blocking most maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes. Although President Donald Trump has claimed at various stages of the war that the strait would be reopened soon (or had already reopened), traffic through the waterway has remained severely restricted since the onset of the conflict.

On Thursday, the average cost of regular grade gasoline in the U.S. stood at $4.30 per gallon, the highest rate for that type of gasoline since July 2022.

The current cost for gas is 46.4 percent higher than where prices stood a week before the unauthorized war began, and represents a 38.3 percent increase since the start of Trump’s second term in office. Gas costs in several states are well above the national average, including in California, where prices have reportedly topped $6 per gallon, on average.

Notably, Trump campaigned in the 2024 presidential race to bring gas prices down to $2 per gallon. In the nearly year and a half since he re-entered the White House, however, U.S. gas prices have yet to reach that........

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