Gas prices have shot up since President Trump started the war with Iran. Gabe Evans, the Republican congressman in Colorado's 8th District, supports that war. He's in one of the closest House races in the country.

So he has a different explanation for what you're paying at the pump: Colorado Democrats.

At an August event in Thornton, according to The Colorado Sun, Evans said:

"Sure, there's national components to this, but there's very, very much a state component where you have the state of Colorado, under Democrat control, that has declared war on oil and gas for the last eight years."

Last week, at a truck depot in Commerce City, he went further: "We should be lower than the national average. Democrats are doing a complete hypocritical bait and switch when they talk about gas prices."

The Colorado Sun checked. The numbers don't back him up.

What the numbers say

Evans' main evidence is that Colorado gas costs more than the national average. It does, barely.

• On Friday, a gallon of regular in Colorado averaged $4.35, versus $4.30 nationally, according to AAA. A nickel.
• More than a dozen states paid more than Colorado.
• Diesel in Colorado was about 25 cents cheaper than the national average.

Now look at a year ago, before the war started and the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for the world's oil, closed. AAA put Colorado's average at $3.17, about a cent below the national average.

Colorado Democrats ran the state then, too. What changed between then and now wasn't Colorado's government. It was the war.

The experts don't buy it

Skyler McKinley of AAA Colorado told the Sun the rise in gas prices over the past year has been a function of policy choices, specifically ones that affect the price of crude oil, which is bought and sold on a global market.

He also shot down the idea that more drilling at home means cheaper gas:

"Eighteen states produce no oil and gas whatsoever. The median price for those states is around $4.25. Colorado, which is the No. 4 oil and gas producer in the country, has prices around a dime higher than states with no production. So policy choices that lead to increased or decreased oil and gas production don't play out in gas prices."

Even gas prices inside Colorado swing wildly without any difference in state rules. On Friday a gallon averaged $3.98 in Lincoln County on the Eastern Plains and $4.75 in Garfield County on the Western Slope.

Grier Bailey, who runs the trade group for Colorado and Wyoming gas stations, said wholesale gas prices come mostly from the price of crude oil. He allowed that state regulations "may play some role," but said the factors that drive oil prices "are not solely based on local regulation."

Evans' story changes with the price

Here's the part that gives the game away.

In February, before the war began, gas was cheap, and Evans gave Republicans the credit. He told the Sun:

"We've had some of the lowest gas prices in the nation at the pump, and that's because when we can actually produce that here in the country rather than smothering it under regulations, energy prices go down."

Same state, with the same Democrats in charge that he now blames. When prices were low, it was Republican policy. When prices went up after a war he supports, it's the Democrats' fault.

Even the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Joe Gruters, admitted during a Colorado visit last month that the Iran war and its effect on oil markets is causing higher gas prices.

Voting to keep the war going

Evans hasn't just stood behind the war in speeches. On September 15, when the House passed a resolution to end it for the third time, he was one of the Republicans who voted no. He also has a record of standing behind Trump's tariffs while posing for photos at the Colorado businesses they hurt. The Colorado Times Recorder counted eight of those votes.

His constituents are paying more for gas because of a war he backs. His answer is to point at Denver.

Adding it up

Gabe Evans tells voters Colorado Democrats are to blame for high gas prices. According to AAA, Colorado's gas was about a cent below the national average a year ago, before the Iran war Evans supports, and is five cents above it now, with more than a dozen states paying more. AAA Colorado says states that produce no oil and gas at all pay about a dime less than Colorado, the country's No. 4 producer. In February, when prices were low, Evans credited Republican energy policy for them.

Source

• The Colorado Sun: Gabe Evans blames Colorado Democrats for high gasoline prices. The numbers and experts say otherwise.

Photo: David Zalubowski/AP, via The Colorado Sun.