Since the Iran war began on February 28, U.S. consumers have paid an average of $471 more for fuel, compared with roughly $60 per person globally, nearly eight times the worldwide average, according to a report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Worldwide, consumers paid an additional $468 billion for fuel over that stretch, with the U.S. accounting for $160 billion of that total, versus $54 billion for China and $17 billion for Canada.
CREA cofounder Lauri Myllyvirta, who authored the report, attributed the outsized U.S. burden to the country's reliance on less fuel efficient private vehicles, longer average travel distances, and a comparatively slow shift to electric vehicles. Gas prices in the U.S. have risen to $4.26 a gallon from about $2.98 before the war, and Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi has estimated the broader inflation effects could cost the average U.S. household around $2,000 in total.