Americans continue to feel the impact of skyrocketing gas prices and airfares caused by the Iran War, despite oil production topping the charts in the United States.
Raleigh drivers are seeing the impact in their wallets.
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“For the people who don't have the money to keep up, it's hurting us right now,” said Peter Rankind. “Right now, you just got to work harder.”
With an increase to fuel, many are having to plan far ahead for travel needs.
“Everything's gone up,” said Rick Diefenderfer. “You look at it and say, oh my god, it feels like it's doubled. I'm not filling up the gas tank unless I see something a little bit lower. With regards to airplane flights, we're really shopping around.”
The U.S. is currently the largest oil producer in the world – so why do we still rely on foreign production?
NC State University professor emeritus and economist Mike Walden said there are three main reasons, starting with the fact that there are different types of oil.
“We have large amounts of light oil,” said Walden. “The problem is our refineries were built to handle most of them, not all. Most of them were built to handle heavy oil.”
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As a result, the U.S. imports heavy oil from other countries.
The second issue, Walden said is that it is also easier for imported oil to reach U.S. refineries using the ocean rather than to transport oil from wells on American soil.
“U.S. oil wells are in the interior of the country and in Alaska, while refineries are typically on the U.S. coasts,” Walden said.
Walden points to oil as an international commodity for the third reason why the U.S. depends on foreign imports.
“If we buy oil, whatever the going price is, we're going to pay that price regardless of where we're buying it from and where it's going to be used,” Walden said.
Walden said the solution will likely not happen overnight.
“We're probably stuck with the refineries we have,” Walden said. “So, the solution right now to higher gas prices is to wrap things up in the Middle East and get back to where we were before the war started.”
Walden suggests a possible solution to reaching energy independence in the U.S is to reduce our use of oil, particularly for driving. Currently, 91% of U.S. vehicles use oil-based gasoline for fuel.