Fill 'er up? Gas 'absolute steal'

You may not know what you paid for milk on your last trip to the grocery, but you probably know what you paid for gasoline on your last fill-up.

What you might not know, however, is that even with the recent spike in gas prices, Americans still are paying about the same for gasoline as they paid during the Carter administration — relatively speaking.

When adjusted for inflation, in today's dollars a gallon of gas costs less now than it did in 1976. And the price of crude oil is less than it was in the early and mid-1980s, when adjusted for inflation.

So why is it that Americans seem so hot and bothered about the price of gasoline?

Perhaps it is that gallons of gasoline, unlike dairy products or movie theater tickets, represent a direct link to our personal freedom.

Jon Allred is no psychologist, but he is an energy analyst with the Utah Energy Office. And he, for one, suggests motorists should look at today's gasoline prices and feel all warm inside — warm as in "comforted," not as in "internal rage."

Gasoline, Allred contends, remains one of the greatest economic values in America, and he is certain this country would get along just fine — and Utahns would still have the freedom to race maniacally to Moab, Zion or Bear Lake at will — even if gas prices rose to $10 a gallon. Not that he is suggesting that will ever happen. Relax, folks.

"We have a wonderful, wonderful situation with petroleum in that it is so cheap," Allred said. "Even at $2.90 a gallon, gasoline is an absolute steal. It is a great gift. It's just like manna from heaven at $3 a gallon."

Allred does not foresee gas prices climbing to $3 any time soon. (Although he will point out Europeans now pay $4.50 to $5 a gallon.) But his reference to $2.90 a gallon has pertinence. That is roughly the highest price Americans have ever paid for gasoline — when the price is adjusted for inflation, in today's dollars.

The price of gas during the last years of the Carter administration in the late 1970s and early 1980s climbed as high as $1.40 a gallon. But when adjusted for inflation, that would be like paying $2.90 a gallon today.

Similarly, gasoline prices in the earlier days of the automobile, like 1919-1922, were equivalent to paying about $2.80 or $2.90 per gallon today.