Gas Prices in 1993

The average price fell 1.5% in 1993, to $1.10 a gallon, and 4.3% after inflation, to $2.46 in 2025 dollars. That was the lowest inflation-adjusted average in the record up to that year, below the 1986 ($2.49) and 1988 ($2.50) levels; 1994 went lower still.

The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, signed on August 10, raised the federal gasoline tax by 4.3¢, to 18.4¢ a gallon from October 1, 1993. The added revenue went to deficit reduction rather than highways until 1997, when it was redirected to the Highway Trust Fund. The 18.4¢ rate has not changed since.

Crude oil prices fell over the year. OPEC members produced above their quotas while demand was weak, and by November the Brent benchmark was near $15 a barrel. As in 1983, the fall in crude more than offset the tax increase in the annual average. In 1990, the third federal increase in this period, the tax rose while crude prices were also rising.

At the pump, 1993 ranks 41st-highest of the complete years from 1970 through 2025; in 2025 dollars it ranks 50th-highest. The difference comes from the years it is measured against. Its nominal price of $1.10 was above every year of the 1970s, but after inflation only six years were cheaper: 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2002.

Ten years later the change was modest in both measures: 2003 was 41.4% higher at the pump and 11.0% higher in real terms. By 2013 the pump price had more than tripled, up 217.4%, and the real price was up 96.9%. Looking twenty years back instead, the pump price had grown 184.8% since 1973, the year of the first embargo, while the real price had come down 12.4%.

Three states averaged under a dollar in 1993: Georgia ($0.95), Missouri ($0.99) and South Carolina ($0.99). The District of Columbia was the second most expensive at $1.30, and Hawaii’s $1.39 put it 28.2¢ above the national figure. Michigan, fourth from the bottom at $1.01, was the cheapest state above the one-dollar line, and Alaska and Oregon tied for fourth-highest.

Either side of 1993 sits a $1.12 average, recorded in both 1992 and 1994. The 1994 figure was a 1.1% rise from 1993 at the pump, but in constant 2025 dollars the price fell 1.5% from 1993 to 1994.

Pump prices in 1983 averaged $1.14, and the constant-dollar average fell 33.3% between 1983 and 1993. The highest constant-dollar annual average among the 56 complete years from 1970 to 2025 was $5.08, reached in 2012.

Georgia at the low end and Hawaii at the high end were 44.1¢ apart in 1993. The 1993 average was above the U.S. average in 29 of 51 states. Each 1993 state figure comes from the EIA State Energy Data System and covers all grades, as an annual average.

The 1993 national figure is approximate: it is the EIA State Energy Data System average for all grades of motor gasoline, taxes included. The constant-dollar figures are in 2025 dollars, adjusted with CPI-U, while the pump figures are not adjusted for inflation.