gasoline prices on the web

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue May 15 09:17:19 PDT 2001


Bob Morris wrote:


> >>In my area of L.A., regular is about $2.05 and premium about $2.25. And
>>rising.
>
>>Yes! Only $2.95 to go (for regular)!!
>
>You wouldn't, by chance, live in an area with workable public
>transportation, would you??

Yeah, I do, but you knew that.

Gasoline in the U.S. is very cheap - not only by world standards, but by our own historical standards. It took 12 minutes of work at the average hourly wage to buy a gallon in 1949; that fell to 6 minutes in 1972. After two oil shocks, it rose back to 11 in 1980 - and started falling again, to an all-time low (at least since EIA figs begin in 1949) of 5 minutes in 1998. As of February - with gas at $1.54/gal, it was up to 7 minutes. Getting back to the 1949 standard would bring gas up to $2.49/gal. It'd probably take twice that to meet the Kyoto standard, no?

Doug



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