How will gas prices in Nevada be impacted as threat of tariffs looms?
The looming threat of tariffs has markets jittery, but consumers shouldn’t expect skyrocketing prices at the pump in Nevada.
The average price for a gallon of unleaded gas in Nevada spiked 4 cents this week, according to a news release from AAA Nevada, to $3.71.
John Treanor, an AAA spokesman, said fuel prices are always subject to market fluctuation, but that Nevada relies more on oil from domestic sources and from the Middle East, meaning the state could be somewhat shielded from possible spikes in Canadian oil prices.
President Donald Trump’s well-publicized threat to place a tariff on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, including oil, has caused recent worry about gas price spikes for consumers in the U.S.
“The states that rely more on Canadian oil are more in the Midwest, such as Michigan,” Treanor said. “Here in Nevada, we’re much more closely tied to California.”
Nationally, Nevada gas prices remain high when compared with prices in most other states. The Nevada average is the fourth-highest in the country, behind only Hawaii ($4.55), California ($4.52) and Washington ($3.99).
The national average this week ticked up two cents to $3.13, according to the results from the AAA survey.
In Reno, the average for a gallon of unleaded is now $3.88. The cheapest state for gasoline is Mississippi ($2.68).
Peter Krueger, a Nevada-based petroleum industry expert and vice president of a lobbying firm called 3C-House, said there are some unknowns now about how tariffs could affect the oil industry.
“At this point, it seems like there would only be an increase of prices if oil supply, say in Canada, were to be restricted,” Krueger said. “I haven’t seen a link in the past between fuel prices and tariffs, but we are in new territory right now.”
AAA is a nationwide motorist club and travel organization with nearly 7 million members in Nevada, Northern California, Arizona, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska.
Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0399. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.
