[mountaineer]

Funny thing about fossil fuels is that they are getting slightly cheaper.

With all due respect, if I fill my tank today, it will cost me $161.9 per gallon. That's cheaper than in years past?

[newgeezer]

With all due respect, if I fill my tank today, it will cost me $161.9 per gallon. That's cheaper than in years past?

Holy cow. You're paying more than 100X what it costs around here.

Come on over with a tanker. Wherever you live, it'd be worth the drive.

[Dan Evans]

With all due respect, if I fill my tank today, it will cost me $161.9 per gallon. That's cheaper than in years past?

What kind of car do you have that requires $161 per gallon fuel? -- a dragster?

Price has fluctuated so it depends on what year you use to compare. If you go back to 1949 it would be about $1.66 a gallon (constant dollars). In 1981 it was about $2.50 a gallon.

The government adds to the cost of gasoline by increasing taxes and mandating additives. Requiring oxygenates has added about a dime a gallon (with little benefit). The immense legal difficulty of building local refineries also drives up the costs.

If the price of gasoline relative to wages were comparable today to what they were in 1920, we would be paying almost $10 a gallon for gas.

http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazines/1998/november/bailey.html

http://www.cato.org/dailys/09-06-03.html

[neverdem]

With all due respect, if I fill my tank today, it will cost me $161.9 per gallon. That's cheaper than in years past?

When you consider the effects of inflation over the last 25 - 30 years, I'd say probably so.