Montgomery and Howard counties are the first Maryland jurisdictions to pass the $4-per-gallon mark, as prices at the pump continue to surge across the country and around the world.

Gas prices have risen sharply in the weeks since U.S. and Israeli missile strikes ignited the war in Iran. The Iranian regime responded by blocking ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for about a quarter of global oil transported by sea.

Fuel costs generally rise with increased demand in the spring; drivers tend to spend more time on the road as the weather warms.

In the last four weeks, the average price of gas in Maryland jumped 33%, to nearly $3.97 per gallon, according to AAA Fuel Prices.

Average prices in Montgomery County were above $4 per gallon on Monday, and Howard County passed the threshold on Tuesday.

Anna Alberini, an energy economics expert at the University of Maryland, said gas prices run higher in densely populated areas and along major travel corridors, where demand is greater.

Affluent jurisdictions often have higher prices, too, she said. When retailers face steep rents and property taxes, they pass along the costs to consumers. Montgomery and Howard are two of the wealthiest counties in the state.

“It’s more expensive to do just about anything” in Montgomery County, she said.

Alberini typically takes the Metro from her D.C. home to her College Park office. But her husband, who often fills his tank in Gaithersburg, sometimes stops by to pick her up for the commute home.

He’s watched prices rise about $1 per gallon in recent weeks, Alberini said.

“People are noticing the prices, even if they take Metro to the university, like I do,” she said. “People are feeling this, there’s no question.”

‘They’re just going to eat it’

After Montgomery and Howard counties, Talbot County had the next-highest average gas price on Tuesday, at more than $3.99, making it an outlier on the Eastern Shore, which had the lowest prices in the state.

Prince George’s and Allegany counties were fourth- and fifth-highest, respectively.

In an attempt to lower energy costs, the Trump administration announced two weeks ago that it planned to release 172 million barrels of oil from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve — an emergency stockpile located in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast — over the next four months.

But the move hasn’t stopped oil prices from continuing to climb.

Republicans in the Maryland General Assembly have pushed for a pause of the state’s 46-cents-per-gallon gas tax to offer drivers relief, but they’ve received no support from Democratic Gov. Wes Moore or Democrats in the legislature, who hold a supermajority in both the Senate and House of Delegates.

The legislature last adopted a gas tax holiday in 2022, when global oil prices shot up after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Gas prices in Maryland reached their highest recorded average that year — $5.02 on June 14, 2022.

Alberini said it’s not likely that surging prices will prompt people to drive less.

“The demand for gasoline is not very elastic,” she said. “People will react a little, but not too much. And so they’re just going to eat it, I’m afraid.”