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CBS MoneyWatch · September 17, 2026 source

“No relief in sight for U.S. drivers as gas and diesel prices surge”

R2/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates CBS MoneyWatch's headline that there's "no relief in sight" for gas and diesel prices a 2/10 because the article's own named experts, cited price records, and supply-shock data all point the same direction, with only a minor squeeze of Tom Kloza's more moderate stabilization forecast into the same alarmist frame as Patrick De Haan's continued-surge call.
The Verdict
Lightly altered. The headline tracks the base facts closely: overnight price jumps, a diesel record, and two named industry experts both warning of continued pain. The only iteration away from clean reporting is compressing Kloza's slightly more moderate outlook, gas "hovering" rather than climbing much further, into the same "no relief" framing used for De Haan's more bearish diesel and gas forecasts.

What actually happened

Gas and diesel prices in the U.S. rose again on Thursday, with GasBuddy and AAA data showing national averages near record levels, driven by wars in Iran and Ukraine plus refinery outages and pipeline attacks that have cut global supply. Industry experts quoted by CBS expect prices to stay elevated or rise further in the near term, particularly for diesel, though outlooks on gasoline's trajectory diverge slightly between sources.

Key facts

  • National gas average jumped 7 cents overnight to $4.44 a gallon, according to AAA, up nearly 50% since before the Iran war started in February.
  • Diesel hit a record $6.40, up 77 cents since the beginning of September.
  • De Haan projects that gas could hit $4.50 a gallon later this week, citing GasBuddy data, which put the national average at $4.46 a gallon.
  • De Haan said diesel could hit $6.60 a gallon as early as this weekend, and a handful of states have already exceeded that benchmark, including California, where diesel costs an average of $8.35 a gallon.
  • Counterpoint buried mid-article: Kloza said that he foresees gasoline hovering between $4.25 and $4.50 a gallon, still painful for consumers, but not significantly above Thursday's national average, a more stabilizing read than the headline implies.
  • Supply shocks cited: the attacks on the East-West pipeline cut 4 million barrels per day from the global market, according to Eurasia Group, and Kloza estimates 3 million barrels of refining have been knocked out due to the Ukrainian drone strikes.

What to watch for

  • Whether Kloza's plateau forecast ($4.25-$4.50) or De Haan's continued-climb call ($4.50+) proves closer to reality over the next week.
  • The Saudi East-West pipeline outage, reported to regional officials as lasting weeks, is the single biggest swing factor for whether "surge" becomes "sustained high" or genuinely worsens.
  • Watch for whether Russia's diesel export ban, cited as a structural drag on global supply, gets any coverage of a reversal or workaround.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
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