production is sending natural gas prices lower. now down about 40% from their october peak. at the same time, your other gas bill, the one at the pump, is also stabilizing. after a relentless crime, recent drops in crude oil prices, they re translating now at the pump. the average per gallon is at a seven-week low, 3.34 per gallon. down about a nickel in just the past few weeks. cooling energy costs if they last offer critical relief for household budgets. we re going to get another read on inflation later this week, but in terms of just that real feel indicator of driving your car or heating your home, a little bit of relief here. do we know why gas prices have dropped? is there i imagine it s not a simple answer. you re right. is there a main driver here? it s a big global oil market, and it crashed last year when we stopped driving and our factories shutdown. now as we re revving back up,
driving prices higher again. everything here, it s a big global oil market, and economies are recovering around the world. when economies recover, industries, countries use more oil and gas. that drives gas prices higher. it s a tough problem to solve. permanently for sure. christine romans, thank you so much. coming up, the u.s. is considering sending extra peppery to ukraine as fears mount over a potential russian invasion. in portugal, if your boss texts you after work hours, they can be fined. in other words, portugal is awesome. much more on that ahead. hi susan! honey? yeah? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad. try this robitussin honey.
atone shtentio attention, including the attention of our president. and eruptions rage in afghanistan even after president obama apologizes for the burning of the koran. we are getting reports of a serious increase in the chaos there. in this country, a man accused of killing his wife while on a scuba trip and who pled guilty to it elsewhere finds he will not be spending time in prison in this country, the judge said i don t even want the jury to hear this. yesterday we told you about the lawmaker who called the girl scouts a bunch of communists and radicals. he says he s sorry, however he says it doesn t change the way that he feels. we ll have a lot more on that. up first, as ashleigh said, more pain at the pump. apparently there s no relief in sight. aaa says national average price of gasoline now is 3.64 per gallon. it s the highest ever for this time of year. we re watching the aaa report this year to see when they come up with a daily increase or decrease. the