FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Xenia Villa stopped to pump some gas into her pickup Friday night. It was less filling up and more getting by for the young Alpharetta driver.
"Gas is really expensive, too expensive," Villa said. "Just five bucks this time because I don’t have a lot of money. That’s actually all I’m going to do.”
Villa said she's hit the road a lot this summer, mostly for her job, and it is weighing down her wallet. On the campaign trail, former President Donald Trump is promising to return gas prices to sub-$2 levels like in 2020. He said he would be in favor of drilling for more oil in the United States if elected, rather than relying on buying oil from other countries.
Tom Smith, an economist at Emory University's Goizueta School, said the good old days of the gas prices of four years ago aren't coming back.
"This was in the middle of or as we’re going into the COVID crisis," Smith said. "People weren’t driving anywhere. I don’t think that was a good barometer of the overall economy even then. You couldn’t say gas prices were low, so the economy is terrific. Gas prices were low, but we saw unemployment go up to almost 10% and a huge number of businesses go out of business, including lots of people dying from COVID."
Smith said gas prices represent just one element of the overall economy, which he called quite strong. Smith said inflation has steadied for the last six months, currently hovering around 3% year over year. Gas prices, the economist said, have actually been falling during this same timeframe.
According to AAA, in Georgia, the average gallon of regular gas is $3.24 a gallon. That same gallon of gas cost drivers 40 cents more on average a year ago, and more than $1.25 two years ago.
“There are some ways the US president can influence, negotiate, work with these other countries," Smith said. "But a lot of this is driven by their own internal metrics and need for profits. The president can’t control the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. They’re a cartel. They’re going to decide what they’re going to do. I think sometimes, there are some empty promises there.”
Smith said people on the whole are not driving as much, potentially due to how hot it has been nationwide this summer. The U.S. is also producing more oil than it ever has, Smith said, leading to supply spikes. The combination of lower demand and increased supply has led to lower gas prices.
Shawn Jones, a driver from Roswell, is used to paying well over $100 to fill up his 32-gallon tank. But when it comes to promises to lower gas prices, he's dubious.
"I think prices have stabilized," Jones said. "They’ve been a lot higher recently. It’s not what it was a couple years ago, but it’s better than what it’s been. Once you get in office, things change and I think a lot of times, they don’t even control those prices anyway. A lot of people put it with a political party, but I don’t think they really control those prices anyway.”
Xenia Villa has her doubts about promises to lower gas prices too, and with her first presidential election coming up in November, she's waiting to see how gas prices continue to trend.
“I really want to believe them," Villa said. "I really do because I want them to get lower. But I feel they always say that, and it never happens.”