Washington, D.C. Gas Prices This Week

In the EIA’s July 2026 (revised August 2026) table of motor fuel taxes, Washington, D.C.’s taxes and fees on gasoline total 35.7¢ a gallon, tied for the 16th-highest of the 50 states and D.C. The 51-jurisdiction average is 33.8¢, and the federal tax adds 18.4¢ everywhere. The District’s tax has two parts: a motor fuel tax of 23.5¢ and a local transportation surcharge that is recalculated each October 1 from a base amount and a consumer price index factor. From October 1, 2025, the surcharge is 12.2¢.

The District has no refineries and no fuel port of its own. Its gasoline comes from terminals in the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs, which are supplied by the Colonial and Plantation pipelines from the Gulf Coast. The whole District is part of the Washington–Maryland–Virginia federal reformulated-gasoline area.

The EIA publishes an annual average for D.C. Its gap to the national average was 1.5¢ above in the 1970s and 5.2¢ above in the 2000s, then 18.3¢ above in the 2010s and 20.1¢ above in 2020–2024. D.C. ranked 24th-cheapest of 51 in 2000 and 44th in 2024. Its highest annual average is $4.14, in 2022, 24.3¢ above the U.S. figure. Adjusted for inflation the peak was 2012, at $5.30 in 2025 dollars, when it ran 22.9¢ above the U.S. average. The series’ largest one-year increase was 1974 (43.9%), during the Arab oil embargo, and its largest decline 2009 (30.6%), the deepest 2009 drop of any jurisdiction in this group.

Without a weekly series for D.C., its seasonal pattern is best read from the EIA’s weekly Central Atlantic region (PADD 1B): averaged over 2004–2025, prices there are 7.2% below the year’s average in January and 5.3% above in June, and remain above average through September.

Washington, D.C. held its cheapest ranking, 19th-cheapest, in 1979 and again in 2009, the only years from 1970 to 2024 in which it averaged below the U.S. figure. In 2009 it ran 4.1¢ below the U.S., the largest amount below in any year of that span, while in the other 53 of 55 years it averaged above. Its ranking was 50th-cheapest in 1985, 1986, 1989, 1992 and 1993.

Starting from $0.36 in 1970 (25th-cheapest), the series reached $1.25 in 1980 (33rd-cheapest) and $1.28 in 1990 (48th-cheapest). In 2010 the average was $2.87, which ranked 46th-cheapest, and in 2020 it was $2.36. In 1998 the series reached its lowest constant-dollar level, $2.45 in 2025 dollars.

For 2024 the EIA figure of $3.48 ranked 8th-most-expensive, and the same average in constant 2025 dollars was $3.57. The U.S. average that year was $3.29, so Washington, D.C. stood 19.4¢ above it. Maryland averaged $3.32 and Virginia $3.09 in 2024, which puts Washington, D.C. 15.5¢ above Maryland and 39.3¢ above Virginia. In the EIA table dated July 2026, the average state total for taxes and fees was 33.8¢, and Washington, D.C. was 1.9¢ above it.