Back in the halcyon days of January 2000 as a new millennium dawned, the average price per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in Utah was $1.28. It has since nearly doubled to an all-time-high average $2.47 a gallon.

How much has the constantly rising price of gasoline cost Utah drivers during the past 5 1/2 years?

At least an extra $1.61 billion, according to a computer-assisted analysis by the Deseret Morning News of government data that tracks how much gasoline is sold in Utah each month and its average price.

That comes out to about $1,010 per adult in Utah — paid not only directly in higher costs at the pump, but also indirectly as businesses and governments raise prices or taxes to help pay for their higher costs.

Some things that each adult in Utah could have bought with that $1,010 instead of paying for higher-priced gasoline include:

• A trip to Hawaii. An ad in last Sunday's newspaper said six days and five nights in Hawaii, including round-trip airfare from Salt Lake City and hotel, costs $839. Enough money would be left over to rent a car.

• Season tickets to the Utah Jazz, Utah Real soccer team, Utah Blaze indoor football team and the Salt Lake Stingers baseball team. That is not just for season tickets to one of them, but all of them — if the lowest-priced tickets were purchased. Also, $128 would even be left over for hot dogs and drinks.
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• A home computer. Some quality systems, including processor, keyboard, monitor, printer/scanner, DVD drivers, and a basic software package, are available for around $900. So, enough would be left over for an iPod Shuffle music player.

Of course, if Utahns could have pooled the $1.6 billion that they spent in higher gasoline costs, they could have paid for some interesting things as a group, including:

• Some much-sought public projects. The $1.6 billion could build the proposed Legacy Highway and the proposed Utah Real stadium and the just-beginning commuter rail project in Salt Lake and Davis counties. Even after paying for them, enough would be left over to have paid for the original North-South TRAX line.

• The instructional costs (mainly teacher salaries) of all Utah public schools. Such costs at the 40 school districts in Utah are about $1.6 billion a year, according to the Utah Taxpayers Association.

• The annual $1.6 billion or so operating budget of the National Park Service and its more than 500 national parks and monuments.

In short, the $1.6 billion — or $1,010 per Utah adult — is a lot of money.

The Morning News figured the cost of higher gas prices in Utah since January 2000 by looking at data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (The EIA does not include prices for diesel, so it was excluded from analysis.)