Image by ChatGPT
Without looking at inflation-adjusted prices, it is difficult to see where gasoline prices actually stand historically. Back in 1918, gasoline averaged $0.25 a gallon, and by 1931, prices had fallen to just 17 cents a gallon, with localized prices occasionally even lower (i.e., 15 ½¢). But as we all know, over the last century, the purchasing power of the dollar has fallen dramatically. So to get the true picture, we can’t simply say that the lowest price of gas was 17 cents per gallon — we need to adjust for inflation.
When adjusting for inflation, there are two prices to keep in mind. The first is the nominal price — the actual price you would have paid at the pump (e.g., 17 cents). The key figure, however, is the inflation-adjusted price, which expresses what that historical price would be worth in today’s dollars. All inflation-adjusted prices in this article are expressed in February 2026 dollars.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Imagine loading up today’s dollars into a time-traveling DeLorean and going back to a specific date. As you travel back in time, each dollar shrinks based on the purchasing power of that era. The inflation-adjusted price is how much you would have paid back then, measured in the weakened purchasing power of today’s dollar. If overall prices have doubled over a given period, it takes two inflation-adjusted dollars to buy something that cost one dollar back then.
Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration
Note: Prices used in this article are for “Conventional” Regular Gasoline. The Blue areas require “Reformulated” gasoline for Environmental Protection reasons. In reformulated gasoline areas, gas prices are roughly 15% higher.
Lowest Inflation-Adjusted Price of Gasoline: $2.04 in 1998
| Date | Inflation-Adjusted Lows |
| 1931 | $3.65 |
| 1947 | $3.37 |
| 1972 | $2.81 |
| 1998 | $2.04 |
| 2009 | $3.51 |
| 2016 | $2.82 |
| 2020 | $2.61 |
Early Gas Prices 1918-1931
Gasoline entered widespread commercial use after World War I. In 1918, the inflation-adjusted price averaged $5.41/gallon — the highest on record — reflecting the early developmental state of the refining industry, high wartime demand, and limited production capacity. As refining technology improved and production scaled up through the 1920s. Innovations in drilling, refining, and distribution, led by companies like Standard Oil and its successors, made gasoline cheaper to produce and transport. At the same time, the rapid spread of automobiles such as the Ford Model T initially boosted demand, but efficiency gains in engines and refining helped keep prices low. Prices fell steadily in both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms.
Gasoline in the Great Depression: 1930–1940
The Great Depression years produced one of the most fascinating — and counterintuitive — episodes in gasoline price history.
In nominal terms, gas prices fell from 21 cents a gallon in 1929 to just 17 cents in 1931 — a 19% drop. But in inflation-adjusted terms, that 1931 price of 17 cents actually represented the decade’s low point at $3.65/gallon, because the general price level had collapsed even faster than gasoline prices. Between 1929 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index fell approximately 25%, meaning every dollar left in circulation bought far more than it had before — so historical prices, when converted to today’s dollars, look higher than they might seem.
But then came the sharper paradox: nominal gasoline prices barely moved over the next several years — creeping from 17 cents in 1931 back up to 18–20 cents by 1933–1934 — yet the inflation-adjusted price surged to $4.63/gallon by 1934. How?
Two forces drove this:
1. The East Texas Oil Glut and Its Correction. The discovery of the massive East Texas Oil Field in 1930 had flooded the market with crude, briefly pushing oil prices as low as 10 cents a barrel. Production chaos was so severe that Texas and Oklahoma declared martial law to try to shut down illegal overproduction — so-called “hot oil.” By 1931–1932, state and federal authorities began imposing production quotas, tightening supply, and allowing nominal prices to recover slightly.
2. The New Deal’s NIRA Price Codes. Under Franklin Roosevelt’s National Industrial Recovery Act (1933), the petroleum industry was subject to federally-sanctioned “codes of fair competition” that effectively set minimum prices and curtailed the price war. This deliberately pushed nominal gasoline prices upward at exactly the moment when the overall CPI remained severely depressed. The combination — rising nominal gas prices during an era of still-falling general prices — drove the inflation-adjusted price sharply higher.
The inflation-adjusted price peaked at $4.63/gallon in 1934, before retreating as wartime inflation began to erode the real value of those nominal prices.
How to read this chart:
- The Black line is the Nominal (actual) price you would have paid at the pump.
- The Red line is the inflation-adjusted price representing what you would pay using current value money.
- The dotted purple line is the average inflation-adjusted price since 1918.
Inflation-Adjusted Gasoline Price Chart
Click for Larger Image
Gasoline Prices in the 1940s and 1950s
In 1940, nominal prices dipped back to 18 cents, bringing the inflation-adjusted price down to $4.20/gallon. From there, gasoline prices rose during World War II, but general inflation from war spending rose even faster, so the inflation-adjusted price of gas actually fell through the war years. It is worth noting that wartime rationing meant gasoline was not always freely available even at the posted price.
The next major bottom came in 1947, when the inflation-adjusted price fell to $3.37/gallon with nominal prices at 23 cents, back to mid-1920s levels. From there, both nominal and inflation-adjusted prices climbed modestly through the 1950s as postwar prosperity drove demand, reaching an inflation-adjusted $3.37/gallon by 1959 (nominal: 30 cents).
Gasoline Prices in the 1960s and 1970s
From 1960 through 1972, nominal gas prices crept up slowly from 31 to 36 cents a gallon while overall inflation ran faster, meaning the inflation-adjusted price fell steadily. By 1972, gasoline was a bargain in historical terms at just $2.81/gallon in today’s dollars. This era of cheap gas encouraged American consumers to buy large, fuel-inefficient vehicles and build out a car-dependent suburban landscape — a pattern with long-lasting consequences.
OPEC brought this era to an abrupt end. The cartel had watched the real purchasing power of their oil revenues erode for decades as the dollar weakened. In 1973–1974, they imposed an oil embargo, and then throughout the late 1970s continued to squeeze supply. Nominal gas prices rocketed: from 36 cents in 1972 to 53 cents in 1974, then to 88 cents in 1979 and $1.35 by 1981. By 1981, the inflation-adjusted price had surged to $4.85/gallon — nearing the 1918 record high and far above anything Americans had experienced in living memory. For most drivers, seeing nominal prices cross $1.00 for the first time was a genuine shock, and most gas pumps needed to be replaced because the most they could handle was 99.9¢. As a stopgap, gas stations would set their gas pump per gallon price at half price and then double the final price.
Annual Average Gas Price Peaks
| Date | Inflation-Adjusted Highs |
| 1918 | $5.41 |
| 1934 | $4.63 |
| 1938 | $4.64 |
| 1981 | $4.85 |
| 2008 | $4.89 |
| 2012 | $5.06 |
| 2022 | $4.25 |
Note: Intraday prices will be much higher; these are average prices for the entire year. Average prices have a much greater effect on a typical person’s wallet than one-time price peaks.
The Long Decline: 1981–1998
From the 1981 peak, a long and remarkable decline unfolded. Inflation itself moderated sharply from 13.5% in 1980 to under 2% by the mid-1980s. OPEC began fracturing as member nations cheated on quotas. North Sea and Alaskan production came online. And in 1986, Saudi Arabia opened the taps in a deliberate price war, sending nominal prices crashing from $1.20 to 93 cents almost overnight.
Over the next 17 years, nominal prices drifted modestly upward while inflation remained tame, resulting in steadily cheaper gasoline in real terms. The all-time inflation-adjusted low was reached in 1998 at $2.04/gallon, the cheapest gasoline in over 80 years of recorded history, in real terms. Most Americans didn’t perceive it as cheap because they were comparing it to nominal prices from a few years earlier. But relative to wages and other goods, gasoline had never been more affordable. The predictable result: consumers gravitated to large SUVs and pickup trucks, and fuel economy faded as a purchasing priority.
The 2000s Boom and the Fracking Revolution: 1999–2016
The cheap-gas era ended abruptly as the 2000s began. Rapid economic growth in China and other emerging markets drove global oil demand to unprecedented levels. U.S. production was in long-term decline. OPEC tightened supply. The result was a sustained, multi-year climb in both nominal and inflation-adjusted prices that culminated in back-to-back peaks:
- 2008: $4.89/gallon (inflation-adjusted) as the global economy roared. Then the financial crisis triggered a sudden demand collapse
- A brief recovery, then 2011–2012: $5.05/gallon (inflation-adjusted) — the highest since 1918 — driven by Middle East tensions and strong post-recession demand
The 2012 peak represented nearly 40 years of inflation-adjusted price increases from the 1972 low.
Relief came from an unexpected direction: hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) transformed U.S. oil and gas production. American output surged from under 5 million barrels per day in 2008 to over 12 million by 2019, making the U.S. the world’s largest oil producer. In late 2014, Saudi Arabia launched a deliberate price war to defend market share against U.S. shale producers, flooding markets with supply. Prices collapsed. By 2016, the inflation-adjusted price had fallen to $2.82/gallon — matching the 1972 low and approaching levels not seen since the late 1990s. An interesting article by NPR: How An Engineer’s Desperate Experiment Created Fracking.
2017–2020: Stabilization and a Pandemic Collapse
From 2016, prices stabilized and recovered modestly as the industry found a new equilibrium. The inflation-adjusted price averaged roughly $2.83–$3.44 through 2017–2019 as U.S. shale production and OPEC production management kept the market balanced.
Then COVID-19 struck. In spring 2020, global demand collapsed almost overnight as lockdowns grounded airlines, emptied highways, and shuttered industry. Oil prices briefly turned negative for futures contracts. Annual average gas prices fell to $2.07/gallon nominal — $2.61/gallon in inflation-adjusted terms — the lowest since the 1998 record low.
The Biden Era: 2021–2024
When Biden took office in January 2021, the national average was $2.38/gallon. By June 2022, it had spiked to an all-time nominal record of $5.01/gallon — a 110% increase in 17 months, although the inflation-adjusted annual average for 2022 was $4.25. Understanding this spike requires separating the global forces from the domestic policy decisions.
Global factors: The post-COVID demand recovery was faster and stronger than energy markets could accommodate. Supply chains were disrupted globally. Then Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 removed roughly 10% of global oil and gas supply from Western markets overnight, sending prices surging worldwide. These forces would have raised gas prices regardless of who was in the White House.
By 2022, several factors drove gas prices to peak at over $5.00 a gallon, including the Russia-Ukraine War, and a post-pandemic demand surge. This, combined with Biden halting new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters, canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, and suspending oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and his EPA announcing new regulations on methane emissions from oil and gas production, reduced supply. Critics argued that a significant portion of the price increase — roughly 80% — occurred before Russia invaded Ukraine, suggesting Biden’s anti-fossil-fuel posture was a primary driver that had a “chilling effect” on investment and production.
In response, Biden released roughly 1 million barrels per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over almost 2 years. Eventually, this resulted in a 47% reduction in reserves. Analysts estimated this move shaved perhaps 15–25 cents off peak prices. By year-end 2022, prices had fallen back to where they started the year.
Strategic Petroleum Reserve Chart
2023–2024 brought continued relief as global crude markets loosened, refinery production improved, and demand moderated. Annual average prices fell from $3.80 in 2022 to $3.40 in 2023 and $3.19 in 2024.
The Trump Era: 2025
Gasoline prices fell for a third consecutive year in 2025, averaging $2.98/gallon nominal — $3.02/gallon in inflation-adjusted terms — the lowest since 2020 and approaching multi-year lows.
What the Trump administration did: On day one, President Trump declared a national energy emergency, reversed the Biden LNG export pause, reopened federal lands to oil and gas leasing, and launched a sweeping deregulatory effort at the Department of Energy that proposed eliminating 47 regulations. He also established a National Energy Dominance Council to coordinate pro-production policy across agencies. These actions signaled a clear shift in the government’s posture toward domestic energy production.
Despite Trump’s “Drill, baby, Drill” stance, much of the price decline is actually the result of Trump’s pressure on OPEC to increase supply, thus making it uneconomical for American companies to actually increase production. So, there was no lag in waiting for increased production, and thus Americans benefited from lower oil prices in 2025, without further drawdowns of the strategic oil reserves.
Gas since 2025
As of this writing, gas prices are up sharply due to the war in Iran. Currently, they are just under $4/gallon nationwide, which is slightly above the long-term average, but they aren’t quite as high as they were in 2022. The annual average price of gasoline will depend on what happens for the rest of the year. At this point, one month of 2026 is much higher than the other two, and if gas prices are able to decline quickly, it might not have much effect on the annual average.
The Long View: Inflation-Adjusted Gasoline Prices
A striking pattern emerges: on an annual average inflation-adjusted basis, gasoline prices have repeatedly peaked in the same broad range — roughly $4.50–$5.50, across more than a century of very different economic conditions, technologies, and geopolitical environments. The 2011–2012 peaks narrowly exceeded even the 1918 all-time high.
Major troughs have actually trended lower than the one before: the 1947 low beat the 1931 low; the 1972 low beat 1947, and the 1998 low beat 1972. The 2016 low matched 1972 (but not the 1998 all-time low).
The long-run average inflation-adjusted price since 1918 is approximately $3.61/gallon in February 2026 dollars. Whenever prices are above that, they are historically expensive and whenever they are below, they are historically cheap. By that measure, 2025’s price means gasoline was below its long-run average.
Note: Remember, these are annual average prices for regular “conventional” motor fuel. Some states require “reformulated” fuel which would cost more. Some states also impose higher-than-average taxes on gasoline, so prices will be higher in those states. Also, Mid-grade and Premium fuel will also cost more. Plus, since these are “annual average” prices, half-of-the-year prices will be higher, and half-of-the-year prices will be lower (sometimes with considerable variation over the 12 months).
How to read this table:
- You can sort by any column by clicking the triangle next to the heading.
- You can change the number of rows using the dropdown.
- You can browse to various pages using the numbers in the bottom right.
- You can print or download the data using the icons in the upper right.
Inflation-Adjusted Gasoline Price Table
On an annual average inflation-adjusted basis, gasoline prices have tended to peak in the same range over the entire 96-year price history. Back in 1918, as gasoline was just entering commercial production, prices were at their peak at $4.79, but as refining capacity improved, prices began to fall (in both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms).
In the early 1930s, demand for gas fell, and so did prices, but as overall deflation took hold, the inflation-adjusted price peaked at $4.10 in 1934 & 1938.
The next peak occurred during the mid-1930s, and then there was a long period of relatively low gas prices, so the rapid increase in the late 1970s was a major (and somewhat artificial) shock to most people who saw nominal prices rocket above $1.00/gal. for the first time ever. Most did not realize that on an inflation-adjusted basis, the last time prices were this high was during the Great Depression (not that the thought would have brought much comfort).
Perspective: Why the Big Picture Matters
When we look at gas prices from our own personal experience, we only see a small window — typically 4 or 5 years at most. This narrow view makes it easy to assume that gas prices “always go up.” The inflation-adjusted long-term chart tells a very different story.
On an inflation-adjusted basis, gasoline was actually in a gentle century-long downtrend from 1918 through 1972, as refining efficiency improved, domestic production expanded, and the industry matured. Then came the OPEC era (1973–1981), which wiped out 50 years of real price declines in about a decade. After that, another long downtrend — interrupted by the 2000s demand boom and 2008 crisis — carried prices to the 1998 record low and again to near-record lows in 2016 and 2020.
The bottom line: except during supply shocks, the long-run trajectory of inflation-adjusted gasoline prices has been downward. Hydraulic fracturing appears to have structurally reinforced this trend by adding a large, flexible source of domestic supply that can respond to price signals. Whether that continues will depend on the interplay of global demand growth, OPEC policy, U.S. production capacity, and the long-term transition toward electric vehicles.
Data Sources:
You might also like:
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- Regarding Gas Inflation
- Historical Oil Prices Chart
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- Crude Oil and Gold
- Oil, Petrodollars and Gold
Interesting insights shared here…. This post exceeded my expectations.
It’s so strange to me, that even when evidence is laid out before them, leftist still refuse to accept the truth. Continually blame Republican presidents – when in every case they saved the country from the Democrat that just about destroyed it! This administration with a senile old man is an embarrassment and disgrace. And middle class are about to be bankrupt because of him. His wife should be ashamed watching her stumbling husband attempts at running a country! Every single person who voted for him should be ashamed!
There must be something that you said that I don’t because as far as I’m concerned and I followed a decade he is everything that they say about him and leaving work is Despicable the only thing I can figure out is that you’re missing form to a degree that is unreal
Probably because we can actually read, think, and count.
Keystone was the dirtiest pipeline ever planned. The oil wasn’t for the US. The tar pit it comes out of is too dirty to refine profitability in North America.
It’s interesting to note that according to the Wall Street Journal the Keystone Pipeline would have been the first “Zero Emission Pipeline” i.e the cleanest pipeline and a lot cleaner than hauling oil around on trains.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/keystone-xl-oil-project-pledges-zero-carbon-emissions-11610930642
The pipeline itself may not have had emissions, but the oil it was designed and planned to carry is some of the dirtiest in the world.
Those two cannot be separated. If the only thing the worlds first zero emissions pipeline can do is carry the worlds dirtiest oil, it is automatically dirty, regardless of the fact that the operation of the pipeline itself does not produce emissions. The best possible outcome would be to banish that oil from entering the U.S. all together, especially since it is only being refined here for export and doesn’t benefit us at all.
The thing is, we are in the last decade or two of oil being the dominant fuel in the world. By 2030-2035 the EU, the UK and a few other countries are banning new sales of combustion powered vehicles, which will have a drastic impact on global demand. Expending large resources on expanding oil today is foolish, especially since new exploration has a long lead time before it comes online, by which time demand should be dropping.
Fusion is also right around the corner. MIT Spinoff “Commonwealth Fusion Systems” is currently constructing what they believe will be the worlds first commercially producing fusion plant in Devens, MA (former Fort Devens) and due to come online in 2025, using fuel that is practically free, hydrogen generated from a few quarts of sea water per year, and produces little in the way of waste, mostly just Helium you could use to fill balloons! It’s not science fiction anymore! It’s actually being built using investor money.
The world is about to change drastically, and it seems more and more unlikely a majority of us will be driving around internal combustion vehicles in 20 years time, so why make decades long investments in oil in order to reduce gas prices when those investments will be starting to go obsolete as soon as they come online? No business in their right mind would do that.
Matthew,
I wrote an article way back in the 1980s about the wonders of Fusion and how it was the next great energy source. It has certainly taken longer than I expected to gain traction.
In addition, and regarding the authors response to your comment:
An obvious hinderance to fusion tech would certainly be legislation or gov policy which did not support its field of research, if you don’t put in the time or effort in the new and continue with 100 yr old bad habits then it should come as no surprise the tech is progressing slower than you predicted 20+ yrs ago, this is a weak position in arguing the legitimacy of new tech.
That’s funny because Most Keystone oil ends up at large, complex refineries along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, which are specifically built to process heavy crude like Canadian oil sands. The Gulf Coast has the largest concentration of heavy-crude refineries in the world.
Houston area
Port Arthur, TX
Beaumont, TX
Lake Charles, LA
Baton Rouge, LA
These refineries include facilities operated by companies like Valero, ExxonMobil, Motiva, Marathon, Phillips 66, and others.
Yes, let’s talk evidence! Please take note that A. 2008 Bush was president, meaning the one of the highest price points belongs to a modern Republican POTUS, B. the Obama Administration’s Cabinet and EPA both signed off on the fracking boom that lowered prices to HISTORICAL lows both nominally and inflation adjusted during his administration, and C. Trump negotiated a 9 million BPD production cut in March of 2020 due to COVID that OPEC was forced to agree to in order to protect US production, which isn’t a bad thing for US companies, but it’s always harder to recover production than sustain it. We are almost back to February 2020 levels of production. We had record oil production in the US alone this past month. And with that, the Saudis are finding Aramco is unprofitable and will have to likely boost output to fund their economy, and that will likely put downward pressure on prices in the coming year.
Thanks, Biden!
Yep, Bush2 presided over one of the biggest buildups in the strategic petroleum reserves as did Reagan and Bush1 while reserves have been slowly drawn down since 2010, with only a slight blip up under Trump. And now Biden has used those reserves not for strategic purposes but to buy votes with lower gas prices. I wonder what will happen if Iran decides to close the straits of Hormuz and we actually need all that oil?
https://inflationdata.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SPR-Chart-Aug-2023.png
As someone who remembers $0.33 p/gal gas prices pre-OPEC embargo days, I really enjoyed this article.
Except for your phrase, “So with the stroke of a pen, he (Joe Biden) eliminated U.S. energy independence.”
We were not poised to be ‘energy independent’ in 2020–or ever at the current rate of progress & demand–not really.
We consume more oil per capita than any country on earth & our appetite is never satisfied.
You wrote it yourself when you mentioned the gas-guzzling SUVs as the US response to lower fuel prices in the ’90’s.
Until we conserve fuel the way Americans did during WW2 & until we use every bit of energy-saving technology available (HEVs, cars that run on recycled products, better MPG vehicles, & yes–even dreaded EVs) we will never be ‘energy independent’–and the world oil producers know it!
Again–great article–thank you for your work.
Agree, the author doesn’t seem to know much about the oil industry. First, Trump was foolish to leave the Iran deal. Now they are further along with nukes and the world could’ve used their oil. Drilling is up 60% under Biden. Biden is pushing EVs and hybrids as well as fuel efficiency standards which in the long term reduces the dependence on oil. Hopefully this year the world will produce 10 million EVs which will reduce the world need for oil by 2 million barrels per day. EVs are the only sure way to reduce oil prices over the long term. We are in a commodity supercycle. There is underinvestment in oil not because of ESG, but because oil investments have sucked for 8 years and price spike like this typically reverse and investors know that history. There’s not a lot of spare capacity in the world especially with the Russian hot/cold war so getting Venezuela to produce makes sense as they are the less of many evils. Better that Biden appeal to them compared to Trump kissing Kim Jung Un’s ring.
From a production worker in a refinery on the Gulf of Mexico: “You’ve been lied to by the President and his phony cronies, but I want to set the record straight. I’m going to tell you the truth, so pay attention”….
1. There is enough recoverable crude oil within the continental US to supply current and projected future demand for 400+ years, and that’s just the oil we know about. It doesn’t account for future discoveries. That’s a fact…
2. We do not need to import a SINGLE DROP of foreign crude oil. The domestic oil industry can easily meet, and even surpass domestic demand. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again. That’s a fact…
3. The domestic oil industry currently cannot satisfy domestic demand due to oil drilling restrictions imposed by the federal government. That’s a fact…
4. The price of EVERYTHING revolves around oil, and the law of supply vs demand dictates the price of oil. When oil is plentiful, commodities are cheap. When oil is scarce, commodities are more expensive. Right now, domestic oil is scarce, and the price of everything is high because of these restrictions imposed by the federal government. That’s a fact…
5. We import foreign oil from countries that drill and produce it much cheaper than we’re able to because they do not implement all of the environmental safeguards that we do. Their methods are FAR more destructive to the environment than ours are. That’s a fact…
6. Every year, the federal government leases tracts of land to oil companies so they can explore on it for oil. If enough oil is found during exploration, the company can then apply for a drilling permit which allows them to drill a well. If no oil is found during exploration, or if the amount found is not enough to be profitable the lease expires without ever being drilled on. Leases that are active, but not being drilled on does NOT mean that oil companies are being lazy, or are trying to keep the oil for themselves, etc. etc. It means they’ve either explored the lease for oil and found nothing, or found oil but it’s not enough to justify drilling for. That’s a fact…
7. it’s not Russia’s fault, or China’s fault, or Ukraine, or India, or Venezuela, or Iran, or Bangladesh, or any other countries’ fault as to why everything is so expensive right now. It’s Joe Biden’s fault, because he is suppressing the domestic oil industry for political gain. EVERYTHING depends on crude oil… but you might not know that if you believe the lies that are being told about oil and the oil industry.
Dennis I’ll reply do your comments. There’s many reasons why gas & oil are higherand it does include every country in the world .includes the printing of dollars that you probably receive a stimmy check. And also has been parked to play prices are going to go much much higher than they are today.I also take it that you’re a republican a right-winger because blaming Biden makes no sense. Many blame closing of Key stone if they could..
Yeah, half of what you told is absolutely and probably false. Oil majors are not investing in drilling now even within leases that remain available. They are doing this to expand profits and reduce capital costs, driving inflation and robbing Americans in the process. This has nothing to do with federal regulations and everything to do with oil company’s greed. For example, Shell Oil just reported Q3 2022 profit of $9.45 billions. Q3 2021 profit was $4.1 billion. Are they using these profits to increase drilling in already approved leases? No, they are using it for stock buy backs.
So cry me a river about how federal government isn’t allowing the oil majors to drill. They aren’t even using the leases they currently have.
Sir; if you’re going to come here to this site and use logic and fact I don’t think you belong here.
Yes, because forcing automakers to produce poorly made EVs no one wants or likes and forcing the populace to buy expensive cars they don’t like is a winning scenario.
You are too politibrained to have reasonable resolution. Elon Musk, who I personally think is pretty cringe, would have one of the most likeable and affordable products but I doubt you would promote it because again, you have partisan brain worms.
Since this is an inflation page, just keep in mind that 33 cent gas in the mid 60’s is equivalent to $3.13 today (per CPI-u)
USA is also the largest producer of oil in the world for the last decade, thanks to fracking, horizontal drilling and other techniques.
What the “world’s energy producers” know is that their market is increasingly India and China and not the USA (or Western Europe).
I see a lot of comments on Facebook stating that European gas prices are even higher than ours. However, I also read somewhere that Europe has always paid more for gas than the United States. Would you be able to show a chart over time comparing US gas prices to European gas prices?
I see a lot of comments on Facebook stating that European gas prices are even higher than ours. However, I also read somewhere that Europe has always paid more for gas than the United States. Would you be able to show a chart over time comparing US gas prices to European gas prices?
You are right, historically Europe has paid significantly more for gas than we do. But they drive smaller cars and everything is closer together, so as a percentage of their income it may be equivalent.
I’m going to answer this question without doing any research First of all Europe is composed of many different countries each country has its own body that determines the price of gas usually the amount that they charge tax on the gas is considerably higher than we do here in the United States. Somehow you seem to give the impression that Europeans are don’t make as much money as people who. live in states and I don’t believe it to be true either when you combine wages and benefits I know it’s not true.
In addition we have varying minimum wages and a big variance in states has taxes on gas making comparison for the nation very difficult. California has high gas taxes an high minimum wages. You can’t compare them with, say Alaska that has no Gas tax.
In addition we have varying minimum wages and a big variance in states has taxes on gas making comparison for the nation very difficult. California has high gas taxes an high minimum wages. You can’t compare them with, say Alaska that has no Gas tax.
Would like to see this updated with current data. And links to actual sources/functions to do offline additional manipulation and graphing, such as raw and inflation-adjusted prices over time overlayed with presidential terms. The eia.gov site has some good info, but only has prices going back to ’93 and does not adjust for inflation.
Some of the older data came from the eia before they removed it from their site. I too was disappointed that they decided to remove it for some strange reason. Fortunately, I had made a copy years ago.
I believe there’s a mistake on the first chart, where you have the arrow pointing to the inflation-adjusted peak, the “2012 Ave. $3.99”. Based on your other information, I believe it should be $4.39?
Good Catch! Thanks! I’ve fixed the chart. But I will have to update the entire chart with all new numbers soon.
I was curious about the price of gasoline recently to actual costs [including inflation]. Some of the wells [crude] were drilled decades ago. Is the price today justified? Or what should gasoline be selling for without ‘greed’ or ‘because we can’t’. Its academic to me as I have an EV I charge at Home with Solar panels.
George, That is a good question. As we can see from the chart Gasoline prices fluctuate wildly (even when adjusted for inflation). The major factors influencing the price of any fungible commodity is supply and demand. In the real world “greed” has nothing to do with it. Although everyone tries to maximize profits if a competitor has the supply he can undercut your price and sell more of his product thus maximizing his profit. This competition drives price to the perfect balance between supply and demand. The economy is roaring ahead (due to the monetary stimulus of the last few years). So demand is high… but a variety of factors have put a damper on supply including “environmental” restrictions created by our government, embargoes on Russian oil etc. So the combination of all these factors has driven gasoline prices up toward the top of the inflation adjusted price range.
So we are, especially now in 2020, paying almost half the cost of a gallon of gasoline! Even with much higher added taxes! Simply Amazing!
A lot depends on which state you are in but on average yes. The U.S. has also become energy independent which is also a factor.
Here’s a thought…If you remember gas prices less than $1, you’re probably 55 or older. I was born in 1981, and other than a blip in 1998, gas was always more than $1. I vaguely remember my parents filling up, maybe as early as 1989 or 1990, and it seemed it was always $1 and change. Seeing the charts above re-enforce those memories. Granted, there was a dip in the mid 80’s, but its likely not everyone saw those prices
I guess it depends on your location. I am 42 and I got my license in ’93. I almost always was paying less than $1 ($0.87 to $0.93) until a year or two after college so about 6 years I think roughly I had where it was very unusual for it to go above $1.
Mike, Yes prices do vary widely based on location (each state charges more or less taxes). The prices you actually paid would be the “nominal” prices. If you had to take today’s money and travel back in time it would cost more because today’s dollars aren’t worth as much because they printed more of them. Those are the ‘inflation-adjusted prices”.
How about showing gas prices without the taxes compared to your nominal price?
Gary, Is Gasoline Taxes by State what you are looking for?
Could you make or show a chart comparison true cost of living since 1900-2017 and cost of gasoline and other things a modern American cannot survive without buying.
Maybe even add in or make another chart showing Min Wage inflation adjust what it’s worth now and then, maybe compare it to Median Income to show the true destruction of America which started in the 1990s and will NOT end.
Pedro,
Thanks for the comment. Over the years we have done comparisons between the cost of living 100 years ago and now. Like Food Price Inflation Since 1913, Its Weight in Gold: The Real Prices of Things and The Real Basket of Goods. Hope this helps!
Sorry, my friend, but the ‘true destruction of America’ started in the 1980s with the failed ‘social engineering’ policies of Ronald Reagan. He almost single-handedly decimated the middle class. His ‘trickle down’ voodoo economics, major cuts to higher education, destruction of the unions and financial deregulation have demonstrably lead to the disastrous situation we have today. Look it up if you don’t believe it. #BelieveIt
Ronald Reagan saved us from Jimmy Carter. Thank God for the Gipper!
absolutely right Tom! The Reagan years were the best financial years for my family. Made some excellent choices (guesses?!) in my younger years, and my grandkids won’t know enough to thank me. I took a big hit during the end of Bush years, and obama almost finished America. President Trump greased the wheels and got the economy rolling strong again. #TrumpTrain
Odd. I remember the Regan years as “a lot of nasl’y talk, no action”. Followed up with the lame Bushes #1 & #2, Then Trump by the time he got in there I saw it for what it was a war on anybody no white with some police butt kissing in there (police lives matter) for good measure. So now with covid shortages I just smile & go home & boil my potatoes.
Well, I guess a lot depends on your perception. But if we look at strictly the numbers we see the sharpest drop in the misery index early in the Reagan Presidency. https://inflationdata.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Misery-Index-Nov-2021.png
Agree! One of the best presidents!
Rik Wild is correct.
Ronald Reagan was the worst president in the US, until Trump.
His policies led to the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle class shrinking.
Maybe the Misery Index should have a longer term perspective.
Roger, We run the misery index all the way back to 1948 and the biggest drop was under Reagan. And it was doing well under Trump until COVID.
https://inflationdata.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Misery-Index-w-Presidents-May-2022.png
Tim,
What I am saying is that whatever Reagan or Dishonest Donald did may have had a temporary impact, the Misery Index does not take into account the long-term misery their actions precipitated.
Would be.nice to know how many industrial plants their was then and now. Might be surprised to know that their aren’t any new ones that I know of.
Since at least 1990 when NAFTA was signed manufacturing jobs have been moving overseas. We began shifting toward Computer based jobs so it is misguided to count “industrial plants” since they are no longer the basis of our economy. We have left the industrial age, passed through the information age and are now entering the post information age.
But in answer to your question what about all the plants Elon Musk is creating, Tesla, and the “Switch data center” which covers a massive 6.5 million square feet? Space-X? Powerwall? SolarCity? That’s just Elon. How about all the projects by Bezos, Page, Adelson, Ellison, Gates and don’t forget Steve Jobs.
I don’t know where you got your prices from, but, when I was growing up I can remember when the gas prices fell from $0.17 a gallon to $0.07 a gallon in the late 1950’s. In the mid 1960’s It only cost $2.00 to $5.00 to fill up your car and the tanks at that time were between 20 gallons to 25 gallons.
Remember these are Nationwide averages, prices varied widely based on State Highway taxes. And you have to look at the “Nominal Price” not the inflation adjusted price. My first car was a 1962 Chevy Impala with a 20 gallon tank and I was lucky to get 10 miles per gallon which gave the car a 200 mile range maximum. The lowest price I remember was $0.29 in 1964 which meshes well with the data which says it averaged $0.30. Gasoline price data comes from the USEIA. http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/data.cfm#prices
Would be interesting perhaps to create a “cost of driving” index for motorists (or for truckers, using diesel price); the index would relate US avg. gasoline price to avg. fleet fuel economy, and would show “miles per dollar” ….
But should it count just marginal costs (gas, tires, oil) or Average Total Costs (including depreciation, insurance, licensing fee & taxes)?
For truckers, it is not just diesel; do not forget diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). This is a significant cost that did not exist until 10 or 20 years ago. Farmers have to buy it now, all the shippers, …
Their goal has always been to make travel unaffordable for us “lesser beings”.
Editor’s note: It requires roughly 2-4 oz of DEF for each gallon of diesel a truck burns. For more info:
https://kus-usa.com/resources/what-is-diesel-exhaust-fluid/
Some experts claim that DEF and SCR engines get better MPG so it may actually save money.
https://www.enginebuildermag.com/2013/08/survey-finds-diesel-exhaust-fluids-def-impact-on-fuel-economy-a-top-concern/