Florida gas was $2.85 a gallon three months ago.
Now it's pushing $4 – and climbing by the day.
DeSantis just told Floridians there's nothing he can do about it, and his answer is going to make you want to throw something.
Florida Gas Prices Have Jumped a Dollar a Gallon in Three Weeks
Standing at a waterfront restaurant in Bradenton on Thursday, Ron DeSantis was asked about the dollar-a-gallon spike hammering Florida drivers.
Democrats in the state legislature had spent the week demanding a temporary suspension of Florida's 23.5-cent gas tax – the same relief that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law Friday for 60 days.
DeSantis said no.
"My answer is just get the cost down internationally, and that means having stable energy markets, making sure we're doing everything to get our stuff to market. But I don't know that there's going to be any simple fix."
https://twitter.com/ReOpenChris/status/2035081412550816124?s=20
No gas tax relief. No emergency session. No action from the governor's office.
The Florida legislative session closed last week without passing a budget.
A special session is set for mid-April, and a tax relief package is expected – but it won't target gas prices.
Meanwhile, drivers in Monroe County – the Florida Keys – are already paying $4.17 a gallon, the most expensive county in the state.
Why Florida Has No Gas Tax Holiday While Georgia Already Does
GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, called the Florida price surge "unprecedented."
The reason is geography.
Gulf Coast states with major ports compete directly with global buyers for fuel – when refiners can export gasoline overseas at higher prices, local buyers have to match those international rates.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2033506268455862762?s=20
Florida, sitting at the foot of the Gulf Coast with major shipping access, gets squeezed from both ends.
The crisis driving those international prices is the Strait of Hormuz.
Since U.S. and Israeli forces launched joint strikes against Iran on February 28 – killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Iran has effectively blockaded the strait, the narrow waterway through which one-fifth of the world's oil normally flows.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol called the current energy crunch worse than the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the 1979 Iranian Revolution combined – and then stacked on top of Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion.
In 1973, OPEC's embargo removed roughly 6 percent of global oil supply.
The Hormuz blockade has cut off approximately 11 million barrels per day – nearly double the combined shortfalls of every 1970s crisis put together.
Brent crude hit $120 a barrel on March 9. It hasn't dropped below $100 since.
Trump responded Saturday with a Truth Social post warning Iran to fully open the strait within 48 hours or face U.S. strikes on Iranian power plants.
Iran rejected the ultimatum and threatened to target American energy infrastructure across the region.
As of Monday, Trump extended the deadline five days to allow diplomatic talks – which Iran says aren't happening.
Senate Democrat Leader Lori Berman put it directly: "We're sitting on billions of dollars in reserves; the least we can do for Floridians during this time of economic crisis and war is provide relief at the gas pumps."
When Florida Democrats are further right on tax relief than the Republican governor, something has gone badly wrong.
The party constantly screaming about affordability spent four years destroying domestic energy production.
Biden drained 243 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – a stockpile built for exactly this kind of emergency.
Trump took office with it sitting at 415 million barrels, less than 60 percent of capacity, and had barely begun refilling it when Iran shut the strait.
https://twitter.com/rahulbali/status/2035013090589151449?s=20
The reserve needs $100 million in repairs before it can even be fully refilled.
Biden left that bill unpaid too.
DeSantis is right that the strait has to reopen for prices to fully recover.
But Kemp just showed that state-level relief is possible right now – Georgia suspended its gas tax Friday while Florida is sitting on billions in reserves and doing nothing.
Ron DeSantis is choosing to protect that surplus while Florida drivers pay four dollars a gallon.
That's the simple fix he decided not to take.
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Sources:
- Patrick De Haan, "No 'Simple Fix' for Rising Gas Prices, DeSantis Says," WUSF, March 20, 2026.
- "Georgia Suspends Fuel Tax, but Other States May Not Follow," Associated Press, March 20, 2026.
- "Trump Gives Iran 48-Hour Ultimatum to Reopen Strait of Hormuz," Fox News, March 22, 2026.
- "World in Energy Crisis Worse Than 1970s' Oil Shocks Combined, IEA Head Says," Al Jazeera, March 23, 2026.
- "What Is the Strait of Hormuz, and Why Does Its Closure Matter So Much to the Global Economy?" The Conversation, March 2026.
