With the price of oil surging since Monday, President Donald Trump signaled that the conflict between the U.S., Israel, and Iran would potentially be drawn out for longer than a few weeks, raising student concerns that the gas prices at the pumps would rise as a result.
According to NBC News, U.S. crude oil prices soared more than 7%, where the move pushed prices higher by nearly $6 per barrel.
Students across campus voiced their concerns with the immediate news, where some feared greater financial strain due to long commutes back home or to their jobs throughout the semester.
Environmental Science major Avril Barlow voiced concerns about long commutes to get home.
“I’m concerned right now with the fact that gas prices in PA due to the tax are already so much higher, which means if I wanna go and affordably fill my tank every week for an hour long commute back-and-forth, which is 120 miles for a round-trip, I will either have to add on a whole hour on top of already driving for two hours and 20 minutes every day in order to go to like Weirton where it’s like slightly more affordable, so I saved myself, maybe, six dollars on gas right now.”
Laniah Walker, a dual-major in Criminal Justice and Political Science, works with people who have special needs. An increase in gas prices makes her travel capabilities less affordable, putting her job and those she cares for at risk.
“I go home every weekend to go to work. My job consists of driving because I support people with special needs and take them out into the community, so with gas prices rising that will affect me a whole lot because I personally need to go an hour away, so that’s a lot of mileage and then, on top of that, I go to Pittsburgh and I travel with the city a lot, work only two days out of a week, and I’m a full-time student, so gas prices rising will actually put me in a deficit instead of helping me better not only my life, but my clients lives as well.”
Dolly Davies, a Veterinary Technology major, expressed that she wasn’t surprised by the correlation between gas prices and the war. She voiced her concerns over the president’s actions.
“I wouldn’t be surprised, especially with the recent Union address and Trump kept reiterating over and over and over and over again that gas prices are dropping despite being over $2.30 everywhere and I feel like the spike happened after killing their leader, which isn’t surprising either. Everything relates back to us. Like, this isn’t for fun. We’re not doing this to bring peace, we’re doing it to bring attention.”
Penelope Hill, a Social Work major, agreed with Dolly’s perspectives, where she addressed that people aren’t scared enough of what could happen.
“I feel like we need to be more scared. We need to. They want us to worry about gas prices right now, but we need to be more scared of how we are going to continue living as a society from this point on. I definitely feel like Donald Trump preached about lowering gas prices all throughout his campaign and all throughout his run for presidency and I find it stupid that now, I mean, it’s just a given that gas prices were gonna go up.”
Students like Sophia Startare, a Psychology major, are generally just fearful of the conflicts and states of the world currently. She felt that increasing prices are another stressor on everyone that shouldn’t be there.
“Everything is definitely very scary and you know it makes you feel out of control. I’m about to start my masters program with counseling and, you know, going out into the world and starting my life, starting my career and everything, and having to worry about the price of basic necessities like this is definitely an unnecessary stressor in my life.”
Regardless of student opinion, affordability has become more difficult within the last few years, forcing others to question if there is any possibility of prices reverting to manageable levels.
