Gas prices are the highest they have ever been
— -- The average price for regular gasoline across the USA was a record $3.508 a gallon Monday, eclipsing the inflation-adjusted peak of $3.413 set in March 1981, when the average was $1.417, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Separately, AAA and the Oil Price Information Service reported a U.S. average of $3.503 Monday, up 1.2 cents overnight and first time above $3.50.
The two surveys emphasize what Americans already know: However it's measured, gasoline is more expensive than it's ever been. That hurts.
Gasoline sales have fallen 2% to 11% every month since December at 13 gasoline retailers scattered across the USA and who are not direct competitors, according to Jay Ricker, member of a study group that includes the 13. He's president of Ricker Oil, which runs 30 Marathon and BP stations in Indiana.
"People aren't getting used to these prices," he says. "I'm hearing more comments, people saying, 'I need to get a more fuel-efficient car next time.' "
"People are being very prudent about their gasoline dollars at these record prices; combining trips, driving less."
Expect no relief. EIA's predicting regional averages as high as $4 this spring. And the price of oil, which EIA says accounts for about 72% of the price of gasoline, continues to zoom. It closed Nymex trading Monday at a record $117.48, up 79 cents from Friday.
Americans already were saying they were pinched in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll five weeks ago, when gasoline averaged about $3.28. Most of them — 63% — said fuel prices were causing them a hardship. With two exceptions, that's the biggest "hardship" percentage ever recorded by the poll, which has asked the question since February 2000.
Exceptions: 69% in August 2005, 72% in September 2005, after Hurricane Katrina. It made landfall Aug. 29, having ravaged energy production in the Gulf of Mexico and sending gasoline to a then-record average $3.069, EIA said Sept. 5.
Of those who called fuel prices a hardship in the March poll, 19% labeled it severe. That's highest since 21% who said so September 2005.
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