Gas Prices in 1976

The average price rose 4.3% in 1976, to $0.61 a gallon. After inflation it fell 1.4%, to $3.43 in 2025 dollars. It was the second year in a row in which gasoline rose less than prices in general.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act, signed at the end of 1975, governed the market through the year. It kept domestic crude oil under federal price controls, which held the average price paid for U.S. crude below the world price set by OPEC. Refiners that used lower-priced domestic crude and those that relied on imports were balanced through a federal entitlements program, and gasoline prices were controlled as well.

No major supply disruption occurred in 1976. The price change for the year was smaller than in 1975 and far smaller than in 1974, which is consistent with a market where the main price-setting decisions were administrative rather than driven by a new shock. The EIA data for these years is an annual average across all grades, so the record shows only the year-to-year change, not movements within the year.

The 1976 average of $0.61 has two natural points of comparison. By 1986, after the second oil shock had come and gone, the national figure was 40.3% higher at the pump but 27.2% lower in 2025 dollars. Twenty years on, the nominal price had more than doubled, up 102.1%, while the real figure had dropped by 26.6%.

In constant dollars 1976 comes to $3.43, which ranks 23rd-highest of the complete years since 1970, just above the 2024 figure of $3.39. At the pump it ranks 50th-highest, since only the six years from 1970 through 1975 were cheaper in current dollars. That low nominal figure did not last: four years later, 1980 averaged $1.23, the first year to reach double the 1976 price.

State averages ranged from $0.57 in Texas, the lowest, to $0.71 in Hawaii, which was 10.1¢ over the national figure. Florida and Mississippi tied for the second-lowest place at $0.57. Nebraska stood out at the other end: at $0.63 it ranked 48th from the cheapest, and the only places dearer were Hawaii, Alaska and the District of Columbia.

Gasoline averaged $0.58 a gallon in 1975, and the 1977 average was $0.64. From 1976 to 1977 the price rose 6.0% at the pump, while in constant 2025 dollars the same move was a decrease of 0.4%. Taken with the 4.3% rise at the pump from 1975 to 1976, the price climbed in current dollars in both steps around 1976.

The state figures for 1976 give a further view. The gap between the highest-priced and lowest-priced state that year was 13.6¢. The states with a 1976 average above the U.S. average numbered 22 of 51, with D.C. counted among the 51. The state numbers are EIA State Energy Data System annual averages for all grades of motor gasoline.

The $0.61 national figure for 1976 also comes from the EIA State Energy Data System, covers all grades of motor gasoline with taxes included, and is approximate because it predates 2000. The site holds no weekly data for 1976, so the year appears only as one annual number. Figures labelled at the pump, such as that $0.61, are not adjusted for inflation, and the constant-dollar figures use 2025 dollars based on CPI-U. In that constant-dollar series covering 56 complete years from 1970 to 2025, the highest annual average was $5.08, recorded in 2012.