U.S. Gas Prices Hit Record Labor Day High as Iran War Squeezes Supply

Today’s Focus

The national average price for regular gasoline hit $4.14 a gallon heading into Labor Day weekend, the highest ever recorded for the holiday, according to AAA data cited by PBS NewsHour and The Hill.

That figure sits nearly a dollar above where prices stood a year ago and tops the previous Labor Day record of $3.82, set in 2012. Diesel prices also reached a new all-time high on Friday, The Hill reported.

Analysts point to two overlapping pressures. Crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz have dropped sharply since the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in February, and Tehran has refused to reopen the waterway to normal traffic.

Tom Seng, a professor of energy finance at Texas Christian University, told PBS NewsHour that “everything points to the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz.” Refinery outages inside the United States have compounded the squeeze.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, appearing Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” acknowledged that pump prices are higher than at Labor Day 2025 and said the administration is “doing everything we can to push them down.” He offered no timetable for relief.

Drivers are already adjusting. Nicole Collins, filling up in Claymont, Delaware, at $4.199 a gallon, told PBS NewsHour her family scrapped most of its usual summer road trips because fuel had grown too expensive.

The current average remains below the all-time high of $5.02 a gallon set in June 2022, according to AAA. But the gap between this Labor Day and last has become the dominant political fact of the fall driving season.

The Debate

Supporters argue

Backers of the February strikes on Iran, including Secretary Wright and Republican leaders in Congress, argue the pain at the pump is the cost of a necessary security operation and will ease as global supply adjusts.

Wright told ABC’s “This Week” that the administration is pushing on multiple fronts to bring prices down, including domestic production increases and drawdowns from strategic reserves. He framed the current spike as temporary rather than structural.

Allied commentators contend that Iran, not U.S. policy, bears responsibility for the disruption. They note that Tehran has refused to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to normal shipping, a choice PBS NewsHour identified as the central factor behind the crude squeeze.

Industry groups have echoed that point. The American Petroleum Institute has argued that expanded domestic drilling permits and faster refinery permitting would insulate U.S. drivers from future geopolitical shocks, positions the White House has broadly endorsed.

Supporters also point to the 2022 benchmark. Prices remain roughly 88 cents below the June 2022 record of $5.02, according to AAA figures cited by PBS NewsHour, which they argue shows the system is absorbing the shock rather than breaking under it.

Critics argue

Critics of the administration’s Iran policy and energy response argue the price spike was foreseeable and that Americans are now paying for a war whose costs were undersold.

Congressional Democrats have pressed Wright’s department for a clearer plan on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and for specifics on when relief will arrive. Wright, pressed on ABC’s “This Week,” did not provide a timetable, a point critics have seized on.

Consumer advocates say the burden falls hardest on working families. Nicole Collins, the Delaware driver quoted by PBS NewsHour, described cutting weekend travel because of fuel costs, an anecdote critics cite as representative of household strain.

Environmental groups argue the episode underscores the risks of continued reliance on globally traded crude. They contend that faster deployment of electric vehicles and public transit would reduce exposure to Strait of Hormuz disruptions more durably than new drilling.

Some Republican-aligned critics have also pushed back, arguing the administration has not moved quickly enough on refinery permitting or reserve releases. The Hill reported diesel hitting a record on Friday, a data point trucking industry voices have used to warn of downstream inflation.

What the experts say

Independent energy analysts describe the current price environment as a classic supply shock layered on top of refinery constraints, with the geopolitical component doing most of the work.

Tom Seng of Texas Christian University, quoted by PBS NewsHour, attributed the run-up primarily to the Iran conflict and reduced traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The strait normally handles roughly a fifth of global oil consumption, according to long-standing U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates.

The EIA has historically found that crude oil accounts for roughly half of the retail gasoline price in the United States, with refining, distribution and taxes making up the rest. That composition helps explain why a crude disruption translates quickly to the pump.

Historical comparison offers context. AAA’s Labor Day series, cited by both PBS NewsHour and The Hill, shows the prior holiday record was $3.82 in 2012, meaning today’s $4.14 is a nominal record even before adjusting for inflation, though the June 2022 peak of $5.02 remains the all-time high.

Economists at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution have noted in past oil shock studies that sustained crude disruptions tend to feed into headline inflation within one to two quarters, a pattern policymakers will watch through the fall.

By the Numbers

$4.14: national average price per gallon of regular gasoline heading into Labor Day weekend, per AAA data cited by PBS NewsHour.

$3.82: previous Labor Day record, set in 2012, according to AAA figures reported by The Hill.

$5.02: all-time U.S. record for average regular gasoline, set in June 2022, per AAA.

$4.199: posted price at a Claymont, Delaware station where PBS NewsHour interviewed drivers.

About $1: year-over-year increase in the national average since Labor Day 2025, according to PBS NewsHour.

February 2026: month the U.S. and Israel struck Iran, after which prices “shot up” and did not settle, per PBS NewsHour.

~20%: share of global oil consumption that normally transits the Strait of Hormuz, per long-standing U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates.