While gas has skyrocketed in the last few weeks, it's been on an upward trend for a while. There are three major reasons that gas prices have risen: one, as COVID-19 restrictions have eased, consumer demand for gas has gone up, two, pandemic supply-chain disruptions caused interruptions in the supply of gas, and three (most recently), the US and other global economies have foregone Russian oil.

While it is in no way the whole story, the third reason is probably the most important. In protest of the war with Ukraine, the US has levied sanctions against the Russian economy and halted the importation of Russian oil. So have many other big economies around the world. This is important to note because the price of gas isn't set solely based on the US supply- it depends on global oil prices. Another important factor is that, again, the global oil market is extremely volatile. So while Russia only supplies about 8% of the world's oil (and less than 2% of the US's oil), its removal from the market has resulted in drastic price changes.

There's been a lot of debate about additional factors that could also be contributing to the high prices. Chief among them is the reduction in the production of US domestic oil. On his first day in office, President Biden fulfilled a campaign promise to reduce American carbon emissions by shutting down a project to extend the Keystone pipeline from the Canadian oil fields to the existing pipeline in Nebraska. But while this has been much in the news recently, there's still debate about how much this move has led to rising gas prices. Some argue that even if Biden hadn't blocked the extension of Keystone, the pipeline still wouldn't yet be operational, so this decision couldn't have contributed to the gas prices we're seeing today. Furthermore, the Biden administration issued more than 3,500 permits to drill for oil on federal lands in the last year, which exceeds the number of the previous administration.

While the rising gas prices will make it harder for average Americans to get around, that's not the only consequence that will emerge. These price increases will cause major shifts in the U.S. economy: truckers need gas to commute supplies across the country, planes need gas to facilitate tourism and business, and the list goes on.This economic shift affects almost all modes of transportation and production and will likely create inflation within the economy to keep up with the increased costs.

The problem is growing worse by the day and there doesn't seem to be clear end in sight. However, there are some possible solutions. The U.S. will need to fill the shortage of oil in one way or another, either by increasing importation of oil from South America and Canada or by producing more oil within its borders. This would involve opening back up the pipelines that have been shut down, reopening fracking facilities, and increasing offshore mining for oil. But the timeline for restoring old pipelines and creating new ones is large-scale; most facilities would take more than 10 years to become operational.

Many have argued that the only true solution to rising gas prices is to reject the global oil market entirely by shifting to clean energy alternatives. This isn't the first time that the global oil market has demonstrated its volatility, and it certainly won't be the last, so many point out that short-term solutions may be misguided. But whether the solution is to embrace oil drilling or to reject oil entirely, there's one thing that's certain: you're going to need to devote a little more of your budget to gas for the foreseeable future.