NORFOLK, Va. — If you hadn’t already Tuesday, you may soon find yourself paying more at the pump thanks to the war with Iran.
Spending more to hit the road is something that matters to Royce Hart.
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“I do a lot of driving. [I’m] retired. This is how I live now. I don’t want to sit around and rot away. I just want to get out and enjoy life," Hart said.
From Monday to Tuesday, the average price for a gallon of regular of gas in Virginia jumped 10 cents according to AAA.
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“It’s making it harder for me to be able to put gas in my car. [The] light bill, water bill, and everything going up. It’s just a difficult time," said Hart.
The difficulty is something that’s also on the mind of Florist Belinda Clark as she tries to manage her prices. Paying more for gas creates a dilemma: raise prices or keep prices as they are because people are already paying more for other things.
She said she tries to manage the money she spends on gas by being efficient.
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“What we try to do is to make sure we get ample enough time and ample enough information to be able to direct those flowers to where they’re going to one time. Because sometimes, we’ve had to make a second trip. Sometimes, it’s been a third trip," Clark said.
Beyond the pump, ODU economics professor Bob McNab said the impact from the conflict will depend on how long the conflict lasts.
“If this stretches out to weeks or even beyond a month, then we’re going to see global oil prices rise as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is curtailed. That, of course, is going to increase the price at the pump, prices at grocery stores, and really, prices throughout the economy," McNab explained.
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How long prices will take to come back down after the fighting stops will depend on how risky shipping goods through the region is.
“If insurers raise premiums, which they’re already doing, then it’s going to take a longer period of time for those premiums to come down because they’re worried about risk. So what we’re seeing here is the Iranians trying to increase risk in the gulf, increase costs of shipping goods through the gulf," McNab said. "That is their way of inflicting pain globally for the conflict with the United States and Israel."
As of Tuesday, both President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had said the fighting could last weeks.
