And while drivers benefited from the relative cheap prices as the summer driving season began, they are now facing pressures as the national average price in within pennies of its highest in a year (and given the surge in WTI Crude and wholesale gasoline prices - which tend to lead retail prices by one-to-two weeks - things are about to get a whole lot more painful again...

All of which is a major problem for 'inflation' as CPI's gasoline component is set to explode next month...

"While July CPI [Consumer Price Index] data looked pretty good with energy prices well below their year-ago level, August data isn't going to look nearly as friendly," warned Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

What will Joe do? Return to draining the SPR again? Complain to the Saudis (and be ignored)? Blame "Big Oil" again?

We wonder what 'emergency' he will blame this release on?