...we enjoyed gasoline prices of 78 cents a gallon here in Texas.
That would barely cover the taxes today.
Think about this. I lived in Idaho back in 1998. At that time, gas prices in some areas of the state were right at $1.00/gallon. Also at that time, fuel taxes on that same gallon of gas were 18.4 cents for the feds (up from 18.3 cents in 1997), and 25 cents for the state. That's a total of 43.4 cents/gallon in taxes. It was also 43.4% of the total price/gallon. Those tax rates haven't changed in 14 years for the fed or Idaho. So the companies were making nice profits on fuel that was going for 56.6 cents a gallon without tax.