Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories

Were gas prices higher in April 2024 than a year prior?

Person paying for gas
Grace Cary/Getty Images

This fact brief was originally published by EconoFact. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Were gas prices higher in April 2024 than a year prior?

No.

Gas costs in April 2024 were about the same as those in April 2023.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration records weekly, monthly, and yearly averages of all formulations of regular retail gasoline prices. In April 2023, the recorded price was $3.60. In April 2024, it was $3.61 — a difference of about one penny.


Gas prices in the first four months of 2024 ($3.33) averaged about 11 cents lower than in the first four months of 2023 ($3.44).

Gas prices rose 17% between January and April 2024. But an increase in gas prices during this time of the year is not unusual. Gas prices rose 8% between January and April 2023, 24% between January and April 2022 (a period that encompassed the Russian invasion of Ukraine), and 22% between January and April 2021.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

US Energy Information Administration US Regular All Formulations Retail Gasoline Prices (Dollars per Gallon)

Google Docs EIA Gas Prices 2024 versus 2023

Federal Reserve Bank Of St. Louis US Regular All Formulations Gas Price


Read More

New Cybersecurity Rules for Healthcare? Understanding HHS’s HIPPA Proposal
Getty Images, Kmatta

New Cybersecurity Rules for Healthcare? Understanding HHS’s HIPPA Proposal

Background

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996 to protect sensitive health information from being disclosed without patients’ consent. Under this act, a patient’s privacy is safeguarded through the enforcement of strict standards on managing, transmitting, and storing health information.

Keep ReadingShow less
Two people looking at screens.

A case for optimism, risk-taking, and policy experimentation in the age of AI—and why pessimism threatens technological progress.

Getty Images, Andriy Onufriyenko

In Defense of AI Optimism

Society needs people to take risks. Entrepreneurs who bet on themselves create new jobs. Institutions that gamble with new processes find out best to integrate advances into modern life. Regulators who accept potential backlash by launching policy experiments give us a chance to devise laws that are based on evidence, not fear.

The need for risk taking is all the more important when society is presented with new technologies. When new tech arrives on the scene, defense of the status quo is the easier path--individually, institutionally, and societally. We are all predisposed to think that the calamities, ailments, and flaws we experience today--as bad as they may be--are preferable to the unknowns tied to tomorrow.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trump Signs Defense Bill Prohibiting China-Based Engineers in Pentagon IT Work

President Donald Trump with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Trump Signs Defense Bill Prohibiting China-Based Engineers in Pentagon IT Work

President Donald Trump signed into law this month a measure that prohibits anyone based in China and other adversarial countries from accessing the Pentagon’s cloud computing systems.

The ban, which is tucked inside the $900 billion defense policy law, was enacted in response to a ProPublica investigation this year that exposed how Microsoft used China-based engineers to service the Defense Department’s computer systems for nearly a decade — a practice that left some of the country’s most sensitive data vulnerable to hacking from its leading cyber adversary.

Keep ReadingShow less
Someone using an AI chatbot on their phone.

AI-powered wellness tools promise care at work, but raise serious questions about consent, surveillance, and employee autonomy.

Getty Images, d3sign

Why Workplace Wellbeing AI Needs a New Ethics of Consent

Across the U.S. and globally, employers—including corporations, healthcare systems, universities, and nonprofits—are increasing investment in worker well-being. The global corporate wellness market reached $53.5 billion in sales in 2024, with North America leading adoption. Corporate wellness programs now use AI to monitor stress, track burnout risk, or recommend personalized interventions.

Vendors offering AI-enabled well-being platforms, chatbots, and stress-tracking tools are rapidly expanding. Chatbots such as Woebot and Wysa are increasingly integrated into workplace wellness programs.

Keep ReadingShow less