In an economy where it seems like everything just keeps costing more and more, gas prices are on the way down nationwide.
In Richmond, Virginia, Buddy Garrison is thrilled that gas has dropped to under $4 a gallon. And he's not alone.
"I love it! I can deal with that price. It beats paying $4.90 to $4.99 that you had to at one time," Garrison said.
AAA says the price of gas has fallen every day since we hit a national average of $5 a gallon in June. They predict gas averages will continue to drop as demand for crude oil decreases. And that's welcome news. Because of the recent Gross Domestic Product report that shows the U.S. economy in a second straight quarterly decline, possibly signaling a recession.
"The $3.62 for gas is pretty cheap. I think I did good today. I'm almost at a full tank. I'm a busy person so all my money goes to gas basically. This is really good right now to compare to weeks and months ago. It was really bad," said Kimberly Johnson, who lives in Richmond.
Economist Timothy Sullivan says a decline in gas prices can lead to price drops in other areas like groceries, but it might take months to see an impact.
"Energy prices and gas prices, like trucking and distribution, serve as a core costs of running the system. It will have an effect. So, falling gas prices are definitely good for consumers," Sullivan said.
The Biden administration jumped on the good news on gasoline and took credit for it with tweets.
Earlier this year, President Biden blamed high gas prices on "Putin's price hike" stemming from Russia's war in Ukraine. Market analysts say it's complex.
"We've been working really hard to bring the price down. Four months ago, I gave an order to release at least 1 million barrels of oil per day, a day for our nation from our nation's strategic petroleum reserve," President Biden said.
The release of more oil barrels could have kept prices low. But others like Republican Senator John Barrasso, argue that "the demand is down not because of Joe Biden, the demand is down because people can't afford to fill their tank with gasoline!"
Politics aside, moms like Can Zhang from Baltimore just want to enjoy what's left of the summer.
"I think one of the big things we like to do is go explore different state parks in Maryland, so this really gives us more options to drive farther, and go explore more with our little girl," Zhang said.
But you can't please everyone.
"If we're ever gonna solve the fossil fuel problem we need gas prices to go way higher like in Europe, so that we can actually push people towards more electric cars and hybrids, when gas prices go down, people buy huge cars, and when gas prices go way high people buy more fuel efficient cars," said Todd Wade, Baltimore city resident.
