As Washington’s average gas prices reached a new all-time high of $5.774 per gallon on Thursday, May 14, Gov. Bob Ferguson pointed to President Donald Trump and the war with Iran when asked whether the state would consider relief from fuel or climate-related taxes that continue to leave Washington drivers paying among the highest prices in the nation.
The Reflector originally asked for a statement from the governor’s office with these questions on April 14:
• A statement regarding how gas prices are affecting Washingtonians?
• Is there any consideration for a moratorium on state gas taxes — or relief from climate taxes, as reported by the Washington Policy Center in March, the CO2 tax did decline by 4 cents per gallon, but it still adds 52 cents per gallon of gasoline?
The governor’s office provided an answer on Monday, May 11, telling Washingtonians to direct their concerns to the other Washington.
“Since March, gas prices have gone up $1.38 per gallon for one reason only: President Trump’s decision to go to war against Iran,” Governor Bob Ferguson told The Reflector in an emailed statement. “I encourage Washingtonians concerned about gas prices to write to the White House to call on the president to end this war.”
Several states, including Georgia, Indiana and Utah, have enacted temporary gas tax relief measures this year as fuel prices climbed nationwide.
On February 26, two days before the start of the war in Iran, the average national gas price was $2.98 per gallon of regular unleaded fuel, according to AAA. Flash forward to the 76th day of action in Iran, the national average on Thursday, May 14, was $4.534 per gallon of regular unleaded fuel.
In a post on the area Facebook groups asking community members if gas prices are affecting day-to-day life, the majority of comments expressed displeasure and how the historical rise in gas prices has affected their lives.
Luke Trembley, who commented that he lives upriver from Woodland, said he has shifted to buying groceries online but fears it won’t be long before delivery costs become infeasible, too.
“The least (Gov. Ferguson) could do is give us a tax holiday from the new fuel taxes enacted,” Trembley commented.
Others said finances are squeezed due to rising fuel costs.
“I have had to make sacrifices on other financial aspects to afford the increase,” commented Miranda Neumann in a Woodland area Facebook group.
Among those commenting about cutting costs to save for gas expenditures, a Facebook account named PNWMamaLlama commented, “Life has been hard since COVID, and this kind of stuff just feels like a slap in the face. I think very few people could say they’re thriving or have in a long time. It really starts to wear on a person and definitely affects mine/my husband’s mental health.”
Ridgefield mother shares her story
For Melissa Hoskinson of Ridgefield, rising gas prices have added another layer of strain to an already difficult time for her family.
Hoskinson said her husband has been battling “a rare form of blood cancer” for the past three and a half years, forcing major financial and lifestyle changes for the Ridgefield family of six.
“Towards the beginning of it, you know, we were homeowners, we had dual income and things were just slightly more comfortable for us,” Hoskinson said. “So gas never really felt like the biggest concern as far as financials (go).”
That changed as Hoskinson stepped away from work to help care for her husband while juggling appointments, surgeries and the schedules of four children.
“We’re one income as I had to step back from working and to be there to support him,” she said. “We decided to sell our house to save money and have some funds to live off of for a little while, but that dwindled really fast.”
Hoskinson said the family downsized both their home and vehicle in an effort to keep up with rising expenses.
“What we’re paying for right now for a tiny town home is more than what our mortgage was for our home that we bought six years ago,” she said.
The family sold their larger SUV because of fuel costs and now relies on a smaller Mazda.
“We had to part with that and go down to a smaller vehicle that frankly, we can’t fit our whole family in at one time,” she said.
Medical appointments at Oregon Health and Science University’s (OHSU) Knight Cancer Institute in Portland have also made fuel costs unavoidable.
“It’s 50 miles round-trip each time,” Hoskinson said. “I think in the last, I want to say two months, I think we’ve gone there maybe 10 times.”
Hoskinson said she hopes state leaders will consider some form of relief for residents struggling with rising costs.
“I think that it’s their responsibility to try to help local citizens be able to maintain their cost of living,” she said. “You’re going to have people ending up without homes and shelter and having to make hard decisions.”
She added that organizations, including the Ridgefield Family Resource Center and Compassion 360, have helped the family through their difficult moments by providing gas gift cards.
“Those gift cards were huge to us,” Hoskinson said. “That is literally the reason we were able to make it to certain appointments.”
The big takeaway from community members
The overall takeaway from the numerous Facebook comments received in just a few hours: Residents across the region say record-high gas prices are reshaping daily life, forcing many working families to cut back on travel, family outings and other basic expenses.
One Kelso-area commuter who drives roughly 100 miles daily said fuel has become one of his family’s highest monthly costs, with fill-ups for his older BMW SUV reaching as much as $130 because it requires premium gasoline.
Single parents and small business owners said the rising costs are especially difficult as they balance transportation, food and household bills. One Woodland mother said the prices may force her family to stay home this summer, while another business owner raising a disabled child said even a short trip to Vancouver now requires careful budgeting.
Some residents reported crossing into Oregon for slightly cheaper fuel, while others noted the broader impact of transportation costs on grocery prices and other essentials. One local resident who drives electric vehicles powered by home solar said fuel costs have had little direct impact on their household, but that higher transportation expenses will likely continue to drive up the cost of groceries and other goods over time.
The current state of fuel costs
The national average for regular unleaded gasoline on Thursday, May 14, was $4.534 per gallon. In Washington, the average price per gallon reached $5.774, an all-time high for the Evergreen State, according to AAA. For diesel, the state average was actually down from last month at $6.820 per gallon, while the national average was $5.667 per gallon.
According to AAA, in the Vancouver metro area, the average price per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was just lower at $5.758, and diesel dropped slightly compared to a month prior to $6.668 per gallon on Thursday, May 14.
According to reporting by The Center Square, in January of this year, the national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the United States was around $2.81, while Washington’s average price was just under $3.84.
Federal taxes include excise taxes of 18.3 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents per gallon on diesel fuel, and a Leaking Underground Storage Tank fee of 0.1 cents per gallon on both fuels.
President Donald Trump has said he would explore temporarily slashing federal gas taxes, but how much relief would that really add? In some states, perhaps quite a bit, in Washington, not much at all.
In Washington, the motor vehicle fuel tax rate for gasoline stands at 55.4 cents per gallon. For diesel, it’s 58.4 cents per gallon. The state ranks third in motor vehicle fuel taxes, trailing only Illinois and California. A 2% increase is scheduled to take effect in July, with the same annual increase to follow each year.
The funds from the state gas tax go towards highway programs like construction and maintenance, operating movable span bridges, policing and more, according to the Washington State Department of Licensing.
In addition to the motor vehicle fuel taxes — according to the Washington Policy Center in March — the cost of greenhouse gas permits in the state’s climate law declined by 8% to $65.26 per metric ton of CO2. That equates to 52 cents per gallon of gasoline and 63 cents per gallon of diesel. The costs also land on homeowners who use natural gas for home heating, the Washington Policy Center states.
The policy center added that the Evergreen State has the highest CO2-emissions tax in North America.
