The travel intensive bookends to the summer — Memorial Day and Labor Day — find the press focussing on gas prices; and rightly so. We see the big numbers on every gas station sign and the pump reminds us constantly. My folks searched for the cheapest gas back in the ’60s and especially the ’70s during the OPEC oil crisis. And it feels like we are paying a lot these days, but I recently saw a data-driven view that bursts that bubble. From Gemini:
The inflation-adjusted national average price of gasoline since the 1973 OPEC oil crisis fluctuates between $3.00 and $4.00 per gallon, indicating that when evaluated against the long-term purchasing power of the U.S. dollar, real fuel costs have remained remarkably stable. Despite sharp increases in the absolute numerical price at the pump over the last 50+ years, historical data tracking adjusted for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that regular gasoline rarely strays from a long-run historical average of approximately $3.61 per gallon.
Direct Comparison: Selected Historical vs. Modern Gas Prices
| Era / Year | Nominal Pump Price (Per Gallon) | Inflation-Adjusted Price (In Modern USD) | Economic Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early 1973 (Pre-Crisis) | $0.39 | $2.85 | Stable domestic production |
| 1974 (Post-Embargo) | $0.53 | $3.60 | Initial OPEC shock wave |
| 1981 (Historic High) | $1.38 | $5.18 | Iranian Revolution energy gap |
| 1998 (Historic Low) | $1.06 | $1.98 | Asian Financial Crisis crude glut |
| 2008 (Commodity Peak) | $3.27 | $4.77 | China economic boom & speculation |
| 2020 (Pandemic Low) | $2.07 | $2.61 | Global COVID-19 lockowns |
| Current (Sept 2026) | $4.21 | $4.21 | Middle East conflict fluctuations |
Nationally, we are at the upper end of the long-run normal range, but tack on the California gas tax premium (just raised again by 2.2 cents on July 1st) and the costs of our oh-so-special blend plus refineries closing and the pain increases. But it’s still not enough to make me buy tires with inferior traction, lesser water/snow shedding and longer stopping times. Sorry, Gavin. Not gonna do it to.
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