Gasoline at $1 per gallon in 2011? Reality or a Lure?

By jtoney on April 12, 2011.

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Every driver is faced with increasing gas prices in the midst of a recession. Each morning, I drive past this gas station (somewhere in New Jersey) that heralds "$1" per gallon gasoline. Could this be true?

Of course not. The truth is that this "$1" sign has remained unchanged for more than a year, and if you were to purchase gas at this station you would of course pay whatever is the current rate {today, April 12, it was at $3.59 for regular.} One could imagine several reasons for this; my guess is that the owners simply haven't bothered with it.

Most media coverage about gas prices neglects to adjust for inflation. This analysis reveals that a gallon of gasoline was very high in 1918, at $3.61 in 2010 dollars, then in 1981 at $3.24 and again in 2008 at $3.23. Note:

Prices are average annual prices and not peak prices so peaks are smoothed out considerably.

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