Investigation as Trump spends more than $1M in taxpayer dollars to promote his own leadership

Christy Strawser (0:01)

This is On Deadline, where the biggest stories, the smartest journalists, and the conversations that matter come together from Audacy news stations across the country.

When news breaks, the story doesn't stop there. I'm Christy Strawser. Let's get started. A philosopher once said, it's the hope that kills you. How much longer should we be hoping that gas prices decline? Here's Tommy Tucker in New Orleans.

Tommy Tucker (0:26)

Have you been to the pump lately?

It's not pretty. Patrick DeHaan joins as Chief of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy. How you doing, Patrick? Not pretty, is it?

Patrick DeHaan (0:35)

Yeah, it never is. The last seven months have been a lot less pretty.

You know, not looking any better. Although I will say that, praise in Louisiana, it did slip back below the $4 a gallon mark. So you know, it's only three and a half cents lower than last week, but it sure sounds a lot better when it starts with a three instead of a four. But you know, it sounds even better. Last year's price of $2.68 sounds even better.

Tommy Tucker (1:00)

I was getting for the lawnmower premium unleaded because that's the only thing that was available. $5.99 a gallon.

Boy, you talk about some merms go by very quickly on a pump. Why is that so expensive?

Patrick DeHaan (1:14)

Well, you know, everything's expensive. Premium gasoline compared to regular, though, has gone up in the last couple of years, and that's because a lot more manufacturers have been requiring premium gasoline, and it's more expensive. Those octane points are extremely expensive. So, you know, we could go down a rabbit hole, but generally speaking, the reason why premium is a lot more than regular, or the difference is a lot wider than it used to be, is those octane points are very expensive because there's more demand, and it's a lot harder to produce those high octane components. What we call alkylate or a formate are used in premium gasoline, and that's an expensive...

Those are expensive molecules to produce.

Tommy Tucker (1:56)

Generally speaking, you can't go wrong doing what the manufacturer tells you, right?

Patrick DeHaan (2:02)

No. That's why it's important to always do what the manufacturer tells you. If your manufacturer tells you, you know, your car requires regular, you're wasting money on premium. If your car manufacturer tells you that car requires premium and you put in regular, you know, you could be in a world of hurt, especially if you have a high horsepower engine, something with a turbo or supercharger. Always, always follow your manufacturer's requirements and don't put in premium if your car says it needs regular.

It's a waste of money.

It's, you know, it's octane points. A lot of Americans think that, you know, fuel might burn cleaner burns the same way in your engine. So don't waste the money. If your car requires regular, fill up with regular.

Tommy Tucker (2:49)

So what's going on with the Strait of Hormuz? And I'm going to throw a lot of this stuff together and you can take it apart.

The Strait of Hormuz, we got summer gasoline, winter gasoline, fuel oil for the people up north. Well, you may be up north. I don't know where you are, Patrick, but that heat their homes. How does all of that play into the other piece of this puzzle for fuel prices?

Patrick DeHaan (3:15)

Well, I mean, demand is going up. Thankfully, most Americans heat their home with natural gas, which is still mostly affordable, although that's got issues of its own. A lot of data centers and AI using a lot of electricity, which gets generated by natural gas. But if you're in the Northeast where a lot of homes still do use home heating oil, it certainly could be a very expensive year for home heating oil. And that's because inventories are still very tight.

So, you know, not a good year for you if you heat your home with heating oil. Diesel remains very expensive. Thankfully in Louisiana, diesel prices have fallen back below the $6 mark. They were about $6.03 a gallon on the 19th. We are back at about $5.92. So a little bit of relief. Strait of Hormuz, while there are ships that are getting through, that's maybe a good news. That's why the price of oil is, I'll just say, quote unquote, only $91 a barrel this morning. But the choke point is still on getting that barrel of oil refined into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. And that's where the limitation has been. Diesel prices remain very high because of Ukraine's continued successful attacks knocking offline major Russian oil refineries. And those refineries in Russia produce a lot of diesel.