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At the Shell gas station on Broadway near downtown Jackson, diesel cost more than $5 a gallon on March 23. That left construction worker Roberto Parra second guessing the long drive home to Denver after a few weeks of work in town. Filling the tank on his Ram 4×4 cost $172. A week ago, that number was closer to $90.
“I’m going to be paying more just to see my family,” he told KHOL.
Iran’s decision to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz is choking global supply of oil as President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring a hasty regime change in the Middle East continue to spiral into a broader conflict.
Parra said he is “totally against the war,” which hurts innocent bystanders and workers like himself that end up paying to fund the conflict. In less than a month, hundreds of people have died across Iran, Lebanon and Israel with thousands displaced, according to NPR.
“It’s insane,” said Jackson resident Kathy Luciano, highlighting that Trump’s top counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigned this month after stating that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the U.S.
Jaime Stone, a coach with the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club, called the war in Iran “ridiculous.” He drove the club pickup to Lake Tahoe in California last week, where he paid $8 a gallon.
“It’s skyrocketed super, super fast,” he told KHOL.
Fellow coach Teagan Santin said gas prices in Jackson – where low fuel taxes land near the lowest in the nation – usually seem to be insulated from geopolitical headwinds, but not this time. She and others are bracing for prices to continue to climb.
Luciano said she saw prices surge 20 cents a day last week.
“It went up from $2.99 to $4 and I’m sure it’s going to keep going up,” she said.
