Gas, heating, food & fertilizer | Looking at the cost of the Iran war

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is set to deliver the first speech Wednesday night on the Iran war. The president’s first term speech will provide an update on America’s progress toward its goals in Iran, according to a White House official.

Trump’s speech will begin at 9 p.m. You can watch the address live on the radio’s app, mobile device and online.

The impact of the Iran war can be felt at the grocery store, the gas pump and retirement accounts.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil has risen above $100 for the first time since the summer of 2022 and gasoline prices have risen. That was followed by a long period where the price of oil remained between $60 and $70.

Investors’ attention is on how long the war in Iran will last, how high inflation might rise and what that might mean for the economy. Dramatic intraday swings in indexes such as the S&P 500 are common.

The uncertainty brought on by the war is complicating interest rate decisions for the Federal Reserve, which has kept rates steady this year after cutting them three times late last year.

Oil prices have been dictating the US stock market since the start of the Iran war. Brent crude, the benchmark for nearly a third of the world’s crude oil, shot from $70 a barrel to as high as $119 at times. Investors have been swinging back and forth between hopes that the war will end quickly and concerns that a protracted conflict will block oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf from global markets, which could cause a brutal burst of inflation.

By the end of February, drivers in many parts of the US were paying less than $3 for a gallon of gas. As of Tuesday, the national average had risen to $4 for the first time since 2022.

Several states considered suspending the gas tax to help active drivers including: Arizona, South Carolina, Georgia and others.

Some states adopted cheaper summer models to help lower the cost of a gallon of gas.

Higher gas prices have also pushed up prices at the grocery store and other businesses.

At Mayport C&C Fisheries in Atlantic Beach, manager Joshua Harris told First Coast News he’s been watching the numbers rise for more than a year. He said the business receives anywhere from 600 to 2,000 pounds of fresh fish every day, six days a week, which are shipped by boat and flown to Miami before arriving in Northeast Florida.

“Prices are going up,” Harris said.

He estimates that the price of fish has risen from 50 cents to two dollars per pound. When he arrives at a restaurant as a filet, he said, that number usually doubles. Fuel charges from shipping and fishing companies, charges over which he has little control, are factored into what his customers pay.

It wasn’t just shipping costs that would affect food.

Part of the world’s fertilizer is shipped through the Strait or Hormuz. WNEP reports that a Pennsylvania farmer spent 25% more on a truckload of fertilizer than he did five weeks ago – which is $10,000.

“We have to absorb it, there’s nowhere to transfer it, between the programs controlled by the government and the financial market, that’s what we sell our grain. Supply and demand, when grain is abundant, the price is low, it doesn’t decrease, the price goes up,” says Randy Rhoads, co-owner of Rhoads Brothers Farm.

But if a farmer can’t afford to buy fertilizer, that can affect the way he can farm.

A survey from the Maine Department of Energy Resources released Thursday reveals heating oil prices in Maine have reached an average of $5.40 per gallon.

This weekly survey of heating fuel prices shows the national average as of March 23, according to a press release from the department.

Costs have increased by hundreds of dollars for Mainers, most notably by 41% since the Iran war began, according to News Center Maine.

Rideshare drivers in New Orleans are feeling the pinch with high gas prices.

They say Uber has changed its pay structure over the past few years, which has resulted in less money for drivers’ rides. At the same time, the price of gas has risen

more than a dollar a gallon from last month in Louisiana. “You’re taking 50% off gas, I could be doing this almost at a loss,” said Courtney Cosse, who has driven for Uber in the New Orleans area for 10 years.

Cosse said he relies on tips.

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