Oil prices surge amid U.S.-Iran fighting, pushing up U.S. gasoline costs

Oil prices have surged in recent days amid renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran, pushing U.S. consumers to pay more for gasoline at the pump. The world's top 100 oil and gas firms made $30 million every hour in excess profits during the early days of the conflict, according to an analysis by Global Witness and the Guardian reported by NPR.

The top six European oil companies earned at least $22 billion in the first quarter of 2026, 43 percent higher than their profits in the same period of 2025, Global Witness found. The U.K. has maintained a windfall oil profit tax since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, raising more than $12 billion through the end of fiscal year 2025.

The European Union's temporary version of the tax collected almost $30 billion over two years. In April, ministers from Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain wrote to the European Commission calling for another EU windfall tax. The U.S.

Enacted a similar tax in 1980 after high oil prices in the 1970s, though it raised less revenue than projected when prices collapsed in the mid-1980s. Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island proposed a windfall oil profit tax earlier this year and reintroduced legislation with Rep.

Ro Khanna of California in March 2026. Under the bill, companies producing or importing more than 300,000 barrels of oil per day would keep half of excess profits above the pre-war average barrel price, with the other half directed to tax rebates for lower-income Americans. The measure would cover both imports and domestic production and leave about 70 percent of U.S.

Oil production untouched. About a dozen senators, all Democrats plus Independent Bernie Sanders, have signed onto the bill. Whitehouse described passage as an uphill struggle. The American Petroleum Institute called the proposal misguided, arguing it penalizes energy production at a time of uncertainty.