Gas is nearly $4 again and diesel just topped $5. It’s not what you think | CNN Business

US gas prices have rocketed higher during the on-again, off-again war with Iran. After a brief respite, the average price for gas has surged 15 cents in a week to $3.94 a gallon and appears headed north of $4 again. Diesel, which shows up in customers’ shipping costs, topped $5 a gallon again Thursday for the first time in 3 weeks, according to AAA. It serves as a painful reminder of how the military conflict in the Persian Gulf has a direct effect on your wallet. Rising fuel prices aren’t just a story about higher oil prices anymore. Gas and diesel prices have taken on a life of their own, divorced from whatever is going on in the Strait of Hormuz and America’s ability to extract concessions from Iran. In the three weeks that the Strait of Hormuz was at least partially open, oil companies managed to get more than 200 million barrels of crude out of the Persian Gulf, briefly sending oil prices below pre-war levels. Gas and diesel prices fell too – but nowhere close to where they were before the war. After the Memorandum of Understanding between Iran and the United States collapsed last week, oil prices shot higher, rising above $85 a barrel after hovering in the low $70 ran