Philip Turner’s commute is a beautiful drive down Highway 84, off the caprock in rural West Texas. He’s a paramedic with Scurry County EMS, about 90 miles southeast of his home in Lubbock. Turner is passionate about his work serving West Texans in Snyder and surrounding communities, where some rely on their rural health service as the nearest medical resources.
“These are amazing people and the work that’s put in, we care,” Turner said. “Not just our immediate community, but anyone we come in contact with.”
But in the last few months, the sharp increase in the price of gas has put added pressure on Americans, especially in rural areas where the drives are farther, and the resources are more sparse.
About 4.3 million Texans, or nearly 15% of the state’s population, are rural residents, according to 2020 Census Bureau data, the largest percentage of rural population in the country.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines the first tier for “Frontier and Remote Areas” as places that are an hour’s drive or more from an urban area of 50,000+ people. In Texas, the USDA reports these areas account for about 28% of the state’s geography.
In close proximity to the Permian Basin and eastern New Mexico, where nearly half of the oil production in the United States is based, the southern Plains of Texas’ Panhandle region has historically had some of the lowest gas prices in the state, even during the tough periods.
But Turner, who can end up driving 180 to 360 miles a week back and forth to work, has been feeling the squeeze as average gas prices climbed more than 50% since the start of the Iran War in February.
“Back when it was only taking about $30, $35 to fill up the tank, pretty much never really thinking about gas,” Turner said. “But now that it's almost $70, it's like, alright, I'm really gonna be spending $70-$140 in a single week.”
Turner said he’s been financially careful even before the most recent cost increases, but work is not his only priority. He’s also raising his 16-month-old son.
“Is it breaking my bank? No, but it's, it's creating that anxiety,” Turner said. “Because now I'm thinking, you know, if gas continues to go like this, budget-wise, would I be able to pay all my bills, put money away for savings, take care of stuff he's gonna need, he's gonna want, right?”
Turner said he has other family living near Dallas-Fort Worth, but the gas prices go up the farther you get from the Lubbock area, making spending time with family feel like a new luxury.
In urban parts of Texas, sales for fuel-efficient and electric vehicles have increased with gas prices over recent years. However, in the ag and oil-based seat of Texas’ Plains and Panhandle region, diesel-powered pickup trucks still play a practical and cultural role for rural communities.
According to AAA, average diesel prices hit a record high in April this year at $5.37 a gallon. That $2 a gallon increase compared to last year is already expected to push food prices up with the input cost for producers, especially younger farmers, but also with the transportation of fresh meats, fruits, and vegetables.
A Farm Journal poll in May placed input costs with fuel, fertilizer, and machinery as the top concern this year from 78% of U.S. farmers and ranchers surveyed.
In recent years, Texas’ income inequality has been most reflected in the rural and border counties, where the pressure from distance has made it harder to access healthy food, and the lack of transportation affects education and employment opportunities.
Turner said he sees examples of these struggles working as a paramedic, and he knows the gas prices are compounding the established issues for many rural Americans.
“If I'm already at that point, I know people who aren't as lucky or well off as me, I know they're well beyond stressed,” Turner said. “And there's one thing we know about stress, man, stress eats you.”
Carl Davis is the research director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. He described the gas price impacts as a “perfect storm” for rural families, especially in the South.
“Folks are being affected everywhere, but I would say the sharpest effects on family budgets are really occurring in these rural areas where folks are so reliant on gasoline for their day-to-day transportation,” Davis said. “They need a lot of it to get where they need to go, for their jobs, for their kids, for their families.”
President Donald Trump has called for a pause on the federal gas tax, which stands at about 18 cents per gallon for gas and 24 cents per gallon for diesel. That tax holiday would require an act of the U.S. Congress, but some lawmakers have supported the idea.
Gas tax holidays previously reached the national conversation in 2022 when gas prices soared in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and President Joe Biden called for a three-month suspension of the federal gas tax.
Davis said many states learned from 2022 that suspending the gas tax doesn’t provide the relief that many are looking for.
“We're seeing a lot fewer states do holidays right now than we did a few years ago, because they have experience with this, and it didn't particularly work last time around,” Davis said. “Drivers didn't even tend to notice the savings in many cases.”
According to a March 23 report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the average family making less than $53,000 a year would only save about $5 a month from a suspended federal fuel tax, but it could cost the federal government $2.4 billion in revenues. Davis explained that the way the fuel tax is applied at the wholesale level means some of the relief will get to drivers, but it's not going to happen right away, and some of it won't get there at all.
“The target population here that you're trying to help are working-class, middle-class drivers who are facing this huge new expense they didn't have before,” Davis said. “But if you have a big part of your tax cut getting pocketed by fuel sellers, that's money that's not going to reach drivers.”
This year, Indiana, Georgia, and Utah have made efforts to suspend their state fuel taxes with the hopes of providing some relief at the pump.
In Texas, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller criticized fellow Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on May 12, calling on the governor to “follow President Trump’s lead” and use executive disaster authority to suspend the state’s 20-cent-per-gallon gas tax.
Abbott has used disaster authority in the past to suspend specific regulations like hotel occupancy taxes for relief workers and evacuees from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and waive restrictions on dyed diesel fuels in response to panhandle wildfires in 2024, but in a recent statement to the Austin American-Statesman, Abbott’s office reported that the Texas government code does not grant governors the authority to broadly suspend taxes for all Texas drivers.
Texas’ statewide fuel tax, which has not changed since 1991, pays 25% of the revenue to schools and 75% to funds for supporting state highways. With a growing population and higher construction costs, building and maintaining Texas’ roads has become a challenge on its own. Davis said even temporarily limiting that revenue could expand the already expensive and growing issues for Texas’ infrastructure.
“I know it sounds kind of strange, but the gas tax should be the one part of the price of gas that drivers are actually excited to pay, because that's the part that's keeping these roads safe,” Davis said. “It's keeping these bridges safe. It's helping expand the infrastructure so you can have a faster commute and get home to your family more quickly.”
Davis said at its core, the energy market is global and a matter of foreign policy; and the “frustrating reality” is that reducing the gas price pressure for working-class families will not happen overnight.
Federally, a tax credit for clean energy vehicle purchases ended with Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” in September 2025, triggering record sales of electric vehicles to get the credit before it ended. Texans saw the second-highest number of claims for the electric vehicle credit, based on 2023 tax returns, saving $267 million.
Davis said more than just affecting the human impact on climate change, those tax credits made it easier for lower-income families to become more economically resilient in the face of unstable gas prices, but the process takes time.
“You can't talk to somebody who's struggling to put food on the table right now and say, ‘Oh, why don't you just run out and buy an electric car instead, and then you won't have to pay for these high gas prices?’ That's not the way it works,” Davis said. “This is not an easy, quick fix, but my hope is that we can use this as a learning experience and think about, hey, how do we avoid the next version of this crisis and help be a little more resilient in the face of these very volatile energy prices.”
Back in West Texas, Philip Turner said he’s not expecting to see relief at the pump anytime soon.
“I try not to dwell on it too much,” Turner said. “Because you can just drive yourself into a further spiral of anxiety and stress about it.”