Gas Prices in 2000

The site’s weekly EIA series begins in 2000, when the U.S. average for regular gasoline was $1.48. That is 33.0¢ above the 1999 figure, but the two are not strictly comparable: the 1999 number is the EIA’s annual all-grades estimate, and 2000 is the weekly regular-grade survey. The direction is not in doubt. Crude oil prices had roughly doubled from their early-1999 lows, and the New York Harbor wholesale gasoline price averaged 86¢ a gallon in 2000 against 55¢ in 1999.

The year’s low was $1.26 in the week of January 10 and its high $1.68 in the week of June 19. That June peak came from the Midwest. The Federal Trade Commission, which investigated, found that reformulated gasoline in Chicago rose from $1.85 to $2.13 between May 30 and June 20, and attributed the spike mainly to refinery production problems, pipeline disruptions including on the Explorer Pipeline, and low inventories, with no evidence of collusion. The national average eased after June and ended the year at $1.41.

Measured in the dollars of the day, the 2000 average of $1.48 ranks 24th of the complete years from 1970 through 2025, counting down from the most expensive. After inflation the same year ranks only 38th. At $2.78 in 2025 dollars, a gallon cost less than in any year from 1974 through 1985, a stretch whose cheapest year in real terms, 1978, still averaged $3.24. It also came in under the inflation-adjusted $2.88 of 2016, a year of low prices after the 2014 collapse in crude oil. The low level did not last: by 2005 the annual average had risen 53.0% in current dollars and 34.9% after inflation.

EIA’s State Energy Data System estimates cover all grades of gasoline, a different basis from the regular-grade national figure above. On that basis Georgia had the lowest state average in 2000, $1.29, as it had in every year since 1987. Nevada ($1.67) and Hawaii ($1.67) shared the top, within a cent of each other, and Nevada’s figure was 19.8¢ above the all-grades U.S. average of $1.47.

The 2001 annual average was $1.42, and from 2000 to 2001 the average fell 4.3% at the pump. In constant 2025 dollars the same move was a decrease of 6.9%. The 1999 average was $1.15, and from 1999 to 2000 the average rose 28.6% at the pump and 24.4% in constant 2025 dollars. That comparison crosses the 2000 change of basis from all grades to regular.

The 1990 average was $1.14 at the pump. In constant 2025 dollars the 2000 average fell 1.3% from the 1990 level, a comparison that also crosses the 2000 change of basis. The highest annual average in constant 2025 dollars from 1970 to 2025 was $5.08, in 2012. Among the 56 complete years on record, 2000 ranks 24th-highest at the pump.

The EIA recorded 52 weeks of data in 2000, and the gap between the weekly high and the weekly low was 41.7¢.

State figures are EIA State Energy Data System annual averages for all grades. In 2000 Georgia was the cheapest state at $1.29 and Nevada the most expensive at $1.67, a difference of 38.8¢. On that basis, 30 of 51 states, counting D.C., had a 2000 average above the U.S. average.