Instead of pain at the pump, it was pleasure at the pump Wednesday in Kansas City. For about 90 minutes today, the price of regular unleaded gasoline was $2.12 per gallon at a FavTrip convenience store there.

It was not a slip up by the business. It was part of a nationwide effort by Americans for Prosperity.

Jeremy Cady, with Americans for Prosperity-Missouri, said the event began at 2 p.m.

Photo by Jeremy Cady, Americans for Prosperity-Missouri

“Cars started to line up before noon and it was building up traffic all the way down the street,” said Cady.

AFP helped about 150 people fill up on the discounted gas. That amounted to about 2,100 gallons of fuel.

He said some drivers pulled in with nearly empty gas tanks. The organization, along with volunteers, were prepping to help just in case stalled cars needed a friendly push.

“The normal price of the gasoline today was about $4.49 at the convenience store. We rolled it back to $2.12, which is the price of gasoline in the state of Missouri whenever President Biden took office,” he said. “It was a fantastic way to give back to the community but at the same time, really kind of get those stories of the impact these higher costs are having with individuals and the solutions that we can undertake to drive down those costs again and make it easier for folks to live and put food on the table.”

The political advocacy group paid about $5,000 to make up the difference in price. It lobbies for lower taxes, less regulation and promotes domestic energy.

“Everyone’s hurting right now with higher groceries, the cost of gasoline has been going up. But at the same time, we’re trying to highlight how the spending in Washington and some of the energy policies have really driven up the price and what we can do to reduce those prices, so that way we don’t have to do events like this. We can just have a permanent price that is much lower than it is today,” said Cady.

Similar events were held in Nebraska, South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana.

Due to rising gas prices, President Joe Biden has called on Congress to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months. Will it help?

“We recently did an event about three weeks ago in Fredericktown, Missouri. The price of gas at that time, I think it was about $4.15. And so, gasoline has already gone up another 34-35 cents over the past three weeks. Saving 18 cents per gallon, obviously that would help folks, it would help folks save a little bit. But at the same time, we really need to be doing a lot more to release the abundant energy supply that America has, so that way we can drive the price down even further and more permanently. Eighteen cents – it’ll be a small help. But at the same time, people definitely want gas to be back closer to $2 per gallon, rather than four or higher.”

He said the organization wants to hold a few more events like this across the state. Americans for Prosperity-Missouri plans to share future events on its social media accounts.

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