Tim Rogus, a retired publisher in suburban Chicago, has noticed fuel prices at the petrol station creeping up towards $3 a gallon, as oil has rebounded to four-year highs this month, but he is philosophical about it. “Our prices were nearly $4 at one point,” he says. “Life has to go on somehow.” His attitude sums up the expected impact on US consumers of rising oil prices: not a disaster, but another burden to bear, with rural areas and middle-income households hit the hardest. Americans are expected to spend an average of $400 per household more on fuel this year than in 2016, as the rebound in crude prices is reflected in the cost of petrol at the pump. By contrast, middle-income US households will on average gain $930 each from the tax cut bill passed at the end of last year, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. The average price of petrol in the US was about $2.75 a gallon last week, according to the government’s Energy Information Administration, up $1 from its low point of about $1.75 in February 2016.