KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s gas tax is about to go up another 2.5 cents a gallon after state lawmakers passed the increase in 2021.

“It addressed what I think is the best of both worlds,” Missouri State Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz said Wednesday, defending the increase. “It allowed people to invest in infrastructure, the ability to do so, and those that don’t, they can apply for a rebate.”

At the same time the increase is kicking in again, President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing the repeal of the federal gas tax for 90 days. The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

One of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, Heather Boushey, said Wednesday families are struggling with high prices because of the pandemic impacting supply chains. Inflation, she said, has been a big problem, too.

“But of course, Putin’s unprovoked war in the Ukraine has upended energy prices globally, and that’s led to higher prices at the pump,” she continued.

“The President’s pulled out all the stops, and this is just the last in a long string of actions that he is taking where he is asking Congress to work with him to take to help reduce prices for families.”

Schatz is running to try to replace retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt. He said Biden’s shift away from fossil fuels is the message that his administration wants to get out.

“They’re just fortunate enough that obviously they can kind of blame some of this stuff on what’s going on in the Ukraine,” he said.

“But again, they’re trying to get done what they’ve always said they would get done, and from day one, President Biden took steps to put North American energy behind, and we’re feeling the effects of that.”

Boushey said when you buy oil, you buy it on prices that are set in a global market though.

“Even though the United States is essentially independent in our fuel production, our energy production because prices are set globally, we are still subject to the [impact] of global energy prices,” she said in response to the fossil fuel question Wednesday.

Missouri’s current gas tax is 19.5 cents per gallon, but it’s about to increase another 2.5 cents a gallon on July 1, making it 22 cents. The state’s gas tax will go up by 2.5 cents every year until it eventually stops at 29.5 cents per gallon in 2025.

Kansas’ gas tax is 24 cents a gallon, but it’s not expected to go up anytime soon.

And when it comes to the repeal of the federal gas tax, Kansas Republican U.S. Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran say they will not support it. Kansas Democratic 3rd District Congresswoman Sharice Davids said she will.