How much has gas gone up where you live during the past 8 years?

[WritersBlock]

A new acquaintance recently asked me about the price of gas here in the UK. So I sat down & did some figuring (which may all have been totally in error; math never was my strong point!) and came up with the following:

Gas costs about £0.92 pence per litre. There are roughly 3.785 litres to the US gallon, so 10 gallons of gas = 37.85 litres x £0.92/litre. That comes out to £34.82. At today's exchange rate, that's about $69.56 for 10 gallons of gas, or $6.96 per gallon.

The reason it's so high here is that it's taxed very heavily. But the interesting thing is that it's only increased by around 50 pence per gallon in the past 8 years or so. I remember prices of around £0.79/liter. That would be 37.85 litres x £0.79/litre = £29.90 for 10 gallons.

At today's exchange rate, that's about $59.73 for 10 gallons, so $5.97 per gallon back then, as opposed to $6.96 per gallon now. An increase of around a dollar per gallon.

BUT - back then, the dollar was worth more to the pound, too. It was around $1.50 or $1.60 to the pound. Figuring $1.55 to the pound, 10 gallons of gas back then was the equivalent of about $46.34, or $4.64 per gallon, bought over here. But it was a LOT cheaper than that in the States 8 years ago; if memory serves, it was about $1.20 per gallon then, maybe less.

Now, my math may be totally off, but if my calculations are right, what we actually pay has gone up around 50 pence per gallon in 8 years. With the exchange rate today, 50 pence is about 98 cents, but as I said, the exchange rate back then was better for the dollar. So back then, 50 pence would have been about 81 cents. Hasn't the price of gas there gone up more than 81 cents per gallon in 8 years?

(Please feel free to correct my math, and therefore my entire premise here :D )

[napi21]

1. I won't claim to be able to go back 8 years. I just don't remember

for sure, but I can tell you that since I moved to Ga. in 2000 I was paying .98 a gallon for quite a while. Sometimes you would even see .96 for a few days. If I remember right, this was before our fearless leader decided to invade Iraq!

I know most European contries heavily tax their gasoline, but they use that money to build, improve, and maintain their roads. Here, we are foolish enough to depend on "the highway bill"!

[Nicole]

2. It's gone up about $1.50 per gallon here in the past 8 years.

Here's a neat chart with prices converted to US dollars.

Date: 5/3/99
Belgium-3.36
France-3.40
Germany-3.37
Italy-3.51
Netherlands-3.55
UK-4.16
US-1.32

Here's the complete chart. Weekly gas prices from 1/1/96- 4/30/07

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gas1.html

Chart is from the

http://imgred.com/

[WritersBlock]

3. Thanks, Nicole! Wish I'd found that earlier.

Coulda saved a lot of stress on my calculator keys :)

[Nicole]

4. I had it bookmarked from another site.

I doubt if I would have found it either, if I was looking for it. :)

[silverojo]

9. If only we had govt. funded health care

We could afford to pay higher prices like the other countries do. But when it comes between fueling up and paying our own hospital bills, we end up paying a LOT more than people in any other industrialized nation.

"Socialism", my @$$--we need health care reform NOW!

[Roland99]

14. Here's that data in graph format from Jan. 2001 on (filtering out a couple of countries)

[A wise Man]

16. Your chart may be correct

But you have to look at it in reality. With the exception of the US those countries do not use as much gasoline as we in the US. Many of their jobs and the market are very close by and many of them utilize the bicycle even today. The US uses more gasoline than any other country in the world, and if you could stand on a freeway visualize one trip of every car that you see going one way then multiple it by city state etc. the figure would be so astronomical that you would want to hurt someone for stealing from you without reason.

[Historic NY]

5. the average price nationwide was.............

$1.65 on Dec. 26, 2000...........I paid $3.09 today.


http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/margins/2000.html

[orleans]

6. $3.15.9 yesterday n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. In 2000 I could fill my tank with 18 dollars

today half the tank size, on teh Hybrid takes 26 to 27

Not quite double, but

We started paying 1.75 today, we are at about oh 3.55 a gallon

[AndyTiedye]

8. It Has Tripled in Price in California

$1.17 then, $3.50 now.

I have already seen over $4 for medium and high test here, and it is
predicted that "localized refinery problems" will bring $4 gas to all
blue states by Summer.

[ThomWV]

10. About 300% nt

[Roland99]

11. US average in Jan. 2001 was $1.46. It's double that now. Up to $3.19 in Louisville this week.

[michaz]

12. $3.11 in Upstate NY

[Chimichurri]

13. it's gone up over $ .20

[AllegroRondo]

15. More than tripled here

I remember times in 99 or 2000 when the price of a gallon was under $1. As low as 78 cents at one time.

Now, its just a few cents under $3 a gallon.

[fed-up]

17. when I moved to CHico Nov. 1999 gas was 99 CENTS a GALLON-today $3.39-ROBBER BARONS!!!

[newportdadde]

18. I have a receipt in my wallet Dec 2001... 95 cents in KC. Today it was 2.84.