The era of cheap gas isn't coming back anytime soon.
And the Energy Secretary just said the quiet part out loud.
Chris Wright told CNBC that Americans shouldn't expect gas prices to fall below $3 a gallon until 2027.
Let that land for a second.
Pre-war prices were sitting at $2.90.
That number feels like a different economy now.
Because it was.
Every extra dollar at the pump isn't just an inconvenience.
It's a silent tax on every American who drives to work, ships a package, buys groceries, or runs a small business.
Inflation doesn't always show up on a CPI chart first.
Sometimes it shows up at the gas station every single morning.
And the ripple effects go deeper than most people track.
Higher energy costs mean higher freight costs. Higher freight costs mean higher prices on everything that moves through a supply chain.
Which is everything.
We're now looking at a two-year floor on elevated energy prices baked in by geopolitics, not just supply and demand.
That's not a cycle. That's a structural reset.
The Fed can cut rates. It can't cut the price of oil.
While Washington debates the next policy move, American households are already doing the math at the pump.
And the math isn't adding up.
2027 is a long time to wait for relief that still isn't guaranteed.
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