Although gas prices in the United States are at an all-time numerical high, there’s more to the story than raw numbers. What would happen if you were to adjust gas prices to account for inflation? The answer is after the jump…
The above graph (click for full view) shows gas prices as compiled by Phil C. Stuart. Mr. Stuart’s data matches almost identically to the average gas prices for the entire U.S.
The grey line shows gas prices in actual dollars, while the blue line depicts prices adjusted to “April 1979 dollars.” The “CPI-All Urban Consumers for all items less energy” was used to adjust the data using monthly average data interoplated to the actual purchase dates.
Every fill was ‘super’ 92-92 octane fuel. Pre-1984 was full service and everything since has been self-serve.
The adjusted data seems to indicate that while gas prices are very high, we’ve experienced such levels before, and for longer periods of time. It’s too soon write off gasoline as a viable source of energy, because oil crises have come and past before. Moreover, the increased fuel efficiency of today’s cars means the average consumer is probably paying less for gas today than during previous peaks.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Phil Stuart/’Random Useless Info.’
