I don't know why, but every once in a while I like to remind myself of what the price of gasoline looks like over the long term. Here it is:
32 thoughts on “Chart of the day: The price of gasoline”
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Cats, charts, and politics
Cats, charts, and politics
I don't know why, but every once in a while I like to remind myself of what the price of gasoline looks like over the long term. Here it is:
Comments are closed.
People do not like spending more than $2/gallon; get upset if they have to spend more than $3; and get mad if more than $4; apoplectic if over $5.
It's been that way for a while now. And that's not in inflation adjusted prices.
If mileage standards were allowed to stand, individuals would spin less for gas and overall, may even reduce demand even as miles driven increase. But we can't let that happen, can we....
Time to build out the charging stations.
Well maybe they shouldn’t have organized their entire lives around having to buy something that varies in price so much from year to year.
I organized my life around biking (essentially free), public transit (which rarely changes by more than 20% in price year over year), regulated tax fares (again, limited in price changes) and walking (free again). It cost me more in housing and taxes, but again those too don’t vary by more than 20% in a year.
And so I don’t need to care about gas prices doubling or tripling or whatever. #freedom
*taxi fares
$3.20 really really hurts. Enough that we have to buy less of other things. We don't use much gas but whenever we do have to refuel it hurts.
Gas in the SF Bay Area is $4.50-$5.00 for regular. Seeing it nationally for $3.00 seems like a dream. But I keep seeing news stories comparing gas prices today to 1 year ago which is an absurd comparison. Two years ago would make far better sense.
???????????? Exactly.
My Honda Clarity has a battery capacity of 17 kWh, which, in So Cal, seems to cost me about 25 cents per kWh to fill, or about $4, for which I get about 50 miles before the gas power kicks in. Extrapolating to 300 miles of range, that's about $25 for a 'fill up.'
A Tesla might have a 100 kWh battery and a range of 400 miles, so 75 kWh to get 300 miles, at a cost of $18.75.
It's not easy to decipher my electric bill, so a may be off on the cost per kWh, but probably within a nickel.
A gas vehicle getting 30 mpg with a 10 gallon tank and gas at $4/gallon, needs $40 for that 300 mile range.
Lose the gas vehicle!
I love my Volkswagen eGolf. It's a shame they stopped making them. It's just the perfect urban vehicle - you can transport a table saw in its box (with the rear seat down) or 4 adults and two large dogs, but it fits into small parking spaces. In the electric form, it beats nearly all comers in those fun little drag races that pop up from time to time (stoplight that leads to interstate on-ramp, for example).
It's just a ton of fun to drive, and I charge it at home. For the first couple of years, I was using an extension cord from an exterior 110 outlet! It worked fine.
Because of the pandemic, I only bought one tank of gas in all of 2020. And it was cheap!
Now if only they could figure out how to make gas cheap when demand is high and I'm buying a couple tanks a month! /s
Won't someone think of Peak Oil!?
(To be fair, Peak Oil used to be one of Kevin Drum's hobbyhorses that made sense. It was the inverse of Our Robot Future. Which, speaking of ORF, I am late to the party on it, but I guess George Jetson was conceived over this Thanksgiving. Mama Jetson was looking to get the pipe.)
Why are there all these people on the road when I want to get somewhere??? How rude of them!
😉
And why is it always the case that you find things in the last place you look?
Thanks, Obama.
It's above the line! The price is ABOVE the dotted line!! INFLATION MONSTER COMING TO EET US IN OUR BEDZ!!!11!
I don’t really think people care that much about gas. We’ve complained about the cost for going on 50 years. I remember when it was 50 cents a gallon. And of course gas in 2008 was much higher.
The media, however, loves this story. The content gift that keeps on giving.
I own a car and I’ve had this one since April 2016. Total miles driven is only 36,500. I spend more on coffee than gasoline.
Well, that's easy, given that a gallon of gas costs about the same as a cuppa Joe.
If I got the conversions right, the price of a gallon in Sweden is approximately the equivalent of $7.55. Quite the incentive to find other energy sources.
Price of gas in USA is insanely subsidized.
https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/
…but many (most ) of them are still whining and whining.
1/3 of US emissions of carbon dioxide comes from roads and price of gas should be adjusted to pay for the damages caused by it .
One could expect them to consider shifting into smaller cars since they are whining but the three most sold ones so far in 2021 are:
Third place..Chevrolet Silverado (407,266 units sold)
Second place…Ram Pickup (434,772 units sold)
And the WINNER IS …Ford F-Series (534,831 units sold)
Incredibly impractical gas-guzzlers!
I guess masculinity is dependent on a big exhaust pipe for many American men (and an AR15 in a gun rack in the rear window)
EV’s are rare creatures on US roads
Thank you for the link.
That's why all elec ford is a big deal. Also you try finding a used car that doesn't cost a limb and is fuel efficient.
Interesting chart. I was surprised how many countries have cheaper gas than even the US. No wonder change from using gas goes so slowly.
One of my earlier memories is Dad driving up and down the strip getting angrier and angries as his wife and kids suffered in silence: He'd be Goddamned if _he_ was going to pay thirty-five cents a gallon for gas!
When I started driving in the late 60’s I couldn’t understand why people actually went to the gas stations that charged 33.9 cents per gallon. I thought 27.9 cents was about right. And I’m sure you remember gas price wars! And, of course, that was for full service.
I paid 24 cents/gallon first time I filled up a car. Smoked the entire time the guy was filling my tank, complaining that smokes cost .35 pack and a bottle of beer was like .75 bottle
Ah........the good old days
Our first 'family' car was a Nash; seemed to be a thing on our block. They don't make 'em like that any more 😉
But it's such an easy story to write!
Much pages filled. Many airtimes. Think if the clicks!
My right wing aunt shared her first political Facebook post in a year! Summertime had stuck a Biden picture on a gas pump! The knee slapping!
Why does chart x-axis jump three years two times but the spacing of the markers remains the same? 2002 to 2005 and 2015 to 2018? Bad chart.
Good catch.
The price of gas is politically tricky for Biden.
On the one hand, high gas prices are likely necessary/good if one has a strategic goal to transition away from fossil fuels. On the other hand, there is plenty of academic research that shows high gas prices have a negative impact of Presidential popularity.
Biden is sort of boxed in on this issue.
Eh, not really.
[Many of] the commenters on this thread are why Dems lose so badly so often.
The price of gas matters a ton politically. Period. All your personal stories hurt Dems.
Do anyone truly expect we , in the global north, will be able to handle climate breakdown without sacrificing some of our privileges?
We who are having it all are the ones who have caused climate breakdown, we who are living as if we are living on a planet with infinite resources and we who are living as if tomorrow doesn’t exist.
Remember, even low income groups in countries like USA is extremely wealthy in a global perspective
We are used to be able to travel hundreds of miles in all directions in just hours at an affordable cost. We are used to be able to fly to romantic remote islands just for fun at any time we choose. We who are able to buy new outfits at any time.
If some politicians or some activists are implying we need to scale down , pay a little more for gas or electricity, in order to save the future for all coming generations are we freaking out and calling them prophets of doom and we are instead turning to politicians who are ensuring us that they are going to handle climate without demanding us to sacrifice anything . They are promising us to reach “net zero”(net zero is a scam) in some distant future and that will be sufficient to save the future of the human race
They are lying!
A comment from a disillusioned Swede
I've never understood why politicians get the blame as opposed to the oil and gas companies, who, you know, actually set the price of gas. We don't live in a communist state where the government can simply dictate prices. This applies to inflation more broadly, as well (though at least in that case, it's a greater number of companies setting the prices so it makes more sense to consider the effects of government policy more broadly).