b'Associate Member News5.7% comparing President Trumps first week in office to his last. Does the President Control GA$ PRICE$? Again, it comes down to supply and demand.One more point worth raising about Presidents and prices: Extremely low prices arent a bragging point. It usually means something really bad happened to the economy, because Turns out that U.S. presidents have very little control over extremely low gas prices are almost always associated with a severe and sudden drop in demand that only happens when the the price per gallon consumers pay at the pump. economy crashes.Changing-Seasons-Changing-Gas-Prices) when demand beginsMore than 40 years ago, a character on Saturday Night Live to increase. These supply-demand imbalances usually lead tonamed Father Guido Sarducci, proposed a Five Minuteprice adjustments. University. His concept: In five minutes, he could teach youwhat the average college student retained five years afterSince the final implementation of the Clean Air Act Amendmentsgraduation. He only wanted 20 bucks for this distillation ofin 2000, the seasonal transition to summer-blend fuel has helpedgreat knowledge. His course on Economics was boiled downgasoline prices rise significantly before they reached their peak,to 3 words: Supply and demand.with increases ranging from a low of 1 cent in 2020 (which needsIf you have kids in college, like I do, you can probably save a some explanation) to a high of $1.56 per gallon in 2022. Thebunch of money sending them to the Five Minute University. And average annual increase is 52.4 cents per gallon.if you have a bunch of relatives sharing posts with crazy thoughts So, imagine you are running for president. Wouldnt you want toabout gas prices, send them this. Either way, repeat these two make that number lower? And lets assume that whether you arewords: supply and demand.president and want to get reelected or help your party to keep theOh, and if you want to see the math, here it is:presidency, youd push every lever at your disposal to minimize price increases. There have been six presidential elections since 2000. But prices have actually risen even more than average during these presiden-tial election years: 49.9 vs. 48.5 cents per gallon through 2020. Yes, its not a big increase but youd think that it would be a big decrease if presidents controlled gas prices, right?What about from a legacy perspective? Can presi-dents say that they reduced gas prices over their term in office? Nope. Every president since 2000 has left office with gas prices higher than they took office (using EIA numbers at https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/): Bill Clinton left office with gas prices 39 cents higher ($1.06 on Jan. 25, 1993;$1.47 on Jan. 22, 2001). George W. Bush also left office with gas prices 39 cents higher ($1.47 on Jan. 22, 2001; $1.84 on Jan. 26, 2009).Barack Obama left office with gas prices49 cents higher ($1.84 on Jan. 26, 2009;$2.33 on Jan. 23, 2017) Donald Trump was a relative success story, with prices climbing a mere 6 cents during his time in office ($2.33 on Jan. 23, 2017;$2.39 on Jan. 25, 2021). Jeff Lenard is the NACS vice president of strategic initiatives at There were some extenuating supply and demand circumstancesNACS. He did not attend the Five Minute University but is really related to the past four years. Because of the massive drop in fuelgood at math. He can be reached at jlenard@convenience.org.consumption related to the pandemic, gasoline demand droppedSWPMA News / Spring 202459'