Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff Lauren vogebam here. Today's gas prices are uncomfortably high for most Americans. The national average cost for a regular gallon of gas was four dollars and nineteen cents as of April four two. According to Triple A. A month earlier, that same gallon would have been under four dollars. A year earlier, it would have been under three dollars. The one bit of good news, such high prices don't
last forever. Gas prices regularly fluctuate. The nation's all time high price technically came on March eleven, two, when gas hit a national average of four dollars and thirty three cents per gallon. That price is dwarfed by the prices seen at the pump. In July of two eight, they hit four dollars and eleven cents, which equals five dollars thirty cents in today's money. But this was just before the onset of the global financial crisis sent gas prices plunging.
But as recently, gas was just a dollar six per gallon, which equates to a dollar eighty six when adjusted for inflation. The lowest price since, though during the nineteen seventies, when there were a number of gas shortages, the highest average price for gas was eighty six cents a gallon or three dollars fifty three cents one adjusted for inflation. There are a lot of factors that contribute to the price of gas. For the article, this episode is based on
How Stuff Works. That spoke with Andrew Gross, a Triple A National spokesperson. He said, the cost of oil accounts for of what you pay at the pump. Another fourteen percent comes from refining costs, sixteen percent is marketing and distribution, and the last fifteen percent is taxes. The price of crude oil, the main driver in gas costs depends upon many factors, but the main one is simple supply and demand. When there's a lot of oil out there, prices drop.
When there's not enough oil to meet demand, prices rise. The world's oil supply is controlled by oil producing nations, including the US, but also by OPAC, a cartel of thirteen oil producing nations clustered in Africa, the Middle East, and South America. The recent surge in gas prices is partly due to Russia's late February invasion of Ukraine, which has spooked the global oil market, But prices were already climbing before the invasion due to the COVID nineteen pandemic.
Back in when COVID first emerged, the pandemic caused an enormous drop in demand as people stopped traveling. This left oil producers with a large surplus, so they cut back production. More recently, with COVID vaccinations and boosters readily available in the US and many other countries, demand for gases rising as home bound citizens are eager to resume travel. Yet oil producers are leery about quickly ratcheting up production to
meet this demand. The pandemic is still here for one thing, Plus, there are major uncertainties about the situation in Ukraine. Producers do not want to get stuck with another surplus on hand. While the cost of gas is rising across the United States, comparing prices between the states is jarring. California's prices are the highest in the nation, averaging five dollars and five
cents per gallons statewide as of March twenty one. That same day, Kansas posted the lowest statewide average, three dollars and seventy seven cents A part of these price differentials come from state gas taxes, which in two ranged from eight cents per gallon in Alaska to fifty one point one cents in California, where environmental requirements for its fuel blends helped drive up the cost. A state's location within the US also plays a huge role in determining fuel costs.
States that are closer to refineries and pipelines, which are clustered in the South, have were gas transportation costs and thus pay less than those states that are farther away. The Western States are hit especially hard as they're far away from refineries and their oil needs to flow through pipelines crossing the Rocky Mountains, an expensive undertaking, but consider
the rest of the world. European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands were charging nine dollars twelve cents and nine dollars twenty cents per gallon of gas on March fourteenth, two, and in Hong Kong, the world's most expensive place to get gas, the price was whopping ten dollars ninety eight
cents per gallon. The citizens in some of the world's oil rich countries luck out, though Iran, Libya and Venezuela were charging their citizens of pittance for gas between ten and nineteen cents per gallon as of March fourteenth two. The reasons for the world wild gas price differentials are similar to those facing the US. Prices differ depending on how far the oil is traveling and the strength of countries trade structures. For example, plus, many industrialized nations tax
their gas at a much higher rate than the US. Here, the federal gas tax has been zero point one eight four cents per gallon since European Union countries, in contrast, must levy a minimum gas tax of thirty six euros per leader that equals about a dollar fifty five per gallon, and similar to how American states add their own taxes, so do many countries in the European Union. The highest gas tax in the EU is in the Netherlands, at point eight one euros per leader, or three dollars in
fifty one cents per gallon. However, right now, no one knows how long this upward trend will last. Gross said, we haven't had a major European land war in seventy five years, much less in the middle of a pandemic O Peck and others are still producing oil at less than pre pandemic levels. There are a lot of questions
out there. Most experts warn that gas prices will likely continue to rise as we are nearing the summer season, which is when gas is reformulated to ward against the excess of operation that can occur when temperatures warm, a pricey process. Yet, they say that sky high prices won't last forever because if they climb to excessively, the economy will falter and demand will plunge along with the price.
In the meanwhile, the best way to save gas is to limit your usage, but because walking or biking to work or the store isn't always possible, here are a few things that everyone can do to use less fuel. First, obey speed limits above fifty miles an hour or so. Driving faster uses more gas. Going seventy five an hour on the highway instead of sixty five miles an hour can cost you six to seven more miles per gallon. According to consumer reports, that means losing a hundred miles
of driving for every fifteen gallon tank. Okay, Also, drive smoothly. Putting the pedal to the metal eats up gas, as do hardbreaking and sharp turns. Next, keep your tires inflated. The tires lose pressure over time, and when they're below recommended levels, you can lose about fift of your car's fuel efficiency. Also, if you can ditch any exterior hardware and empty out your trunk to remove excess weight. Also,
don't idle. It takes less gas to restart your car than to have an idle for more than a minute or two. And finally, combine trips. Awaiting not only cuts down on the number of miles driven, but reduces fuel consumption as warm engines are more efficient than cold ones. Today's episode is based on the article what's the most Americans have ever paid for gas? On HowStuffWorks dot com
written by Melanie Redzeekie McManus. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuff workst Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Before more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.