Gas Prices in 1997

The average price was $1.22 a gallon in 1997, 0.4% below 1996 at the pump and 2.7% lower after inflation, at $2.45 in 2025 dollars.

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, signed on August 5, moved the 4.3¢ federal gas tax increase of 1993 from deficit reduction to the Highway Trust Fund. The change did not alter the 18.4¢ rate paid at the pump.

The event that shaped the following year came at the end of 1997. On November 29, at a meeting in Jakarta, OPEC agreed to raise its production ceiling by about 10 percent, to 27.5 million barrels a day from January 1998. The decision came as a financial crisis that began in Thailand in July was spreading through East Asian economies, which had been a growing source of oil demand. Higher output and weaker demand produced the price collapse of 1998. In the 1997 annual average, the price was still close to its 1996 level.

Oregon had the fourth-highest state average in 1997, $1.38, behind Hawaii ($1.52), Alaska ($1.49) and Connecticut ($1.48). Hawaii’s lead over Alaska was the narrowest since 1979. Georgia, at $1.01, was lowest again, with South Carolina ($1.09) second and Oklahoma and Michigan next. The District of Columbia, fourth-highest the year before, fell to fifth, about a tenth of a cent behind Oregon. Hawaii stood 30.4¢ above the national average.

The 1997 pump price of $1.22 ranks 31st-highest in the record, while its real price of $2.45 ranks 51st-highest. In constant dollars it is close to 1987 ($2.56): between those two years the real price fell just 4.7%, although the pump price rose 34.7%.

By 2017, the average was 98.2% higher at the pump, nearly double, and 29.8% higher after inflation. The 2007 average had already been 129.5% above 1997 at the pump and 77.7% above it in real terms. Set against 1977, twenty years earlier, 1997 was 28.3% cheaper in real terms.

The 1996 annual average was $1.22, and the 1997 annual average was $1.22 as well. Then came 1998, when the U.S. average landed at $1.05. From 1997 to 1998 the price fell 13.9% at the pump, and in constant 2025 dollars the same move was a decrease of 15.2%.

Across the 51 states, counting D.C., 28 of 51 posted 1997 averages above the U.S. average. The 1997 state spread, from Georgia at the low end to Hawaii at the high end, measured 51.1¢.

A longer view starts in 1987, when the U.S. average was $0.90 at the pump. Measured in constant 2025 dollars, the change from 1987 to 1997 was a 4.7% decrease. In 2012 the constant-dollar average reached its highest level for 1970 to 2025, at $5.08. The 1997 record is one of 56 complete years in this series.

The 1997 national figure comes from the EIA State Energy Data System and covers all grades of motor gasoline, taxes included. It is approximate, as are all national figures before 2000. The 1997 state figures are also EIA State Energy Data System annual averages, and no weekly figures are held for 1997. Constant-dollar values use 2025 dollars based on CPI-U, while the phrase at the pump means the price before any inflation adjustment.