U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sept. 16 that there was evidence that gasoline prices should be falling and his administration was investigating why that was not the case.

“There’s lots of evidence that gas prices should be going down but they haven’t,” he said, adding his team was “taking a close look at that.”

The Federal Trade Commission has said it will crack down on practices that may harm consumers at the gasoline pump and seek to deter “unlawful” mergers in the oil and gas industry after the White House asked it to look into why gasoline prices tend to rise more in response to oil price spikes than they drop in response to oil price drops.

The average price of gasoline was $3.19 on Sept. 16, compared with $3.18 a month ago and $2.18 a year ago, according to the AAA gas price website.

Current prices reflect more people traveling and commuting to the office, after the COVID pandemic caused a sharp drop in consumption last year.

U.S. gasoline consumption is expected to average 8.8 million bbl/d this year, up 10% from 8 million bbl/d in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In August, Biden’s administration pressed OPEC and its allies to boost oil output to tackle rising gasoline prices.

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