Gas Prices in 2001

Gasoline averaged $1.42 in 2001, 6.4¢ below 2000, and 6.9% lower after adjusting for inflation. The year had two distinct halves. Prices rose through spring to $1.71 in the week of May 14, the highest weekly figure recorded to that point, and the monthly average for May was $1.70.

The second half ran the other way. The U.S. economy was in recession from March to November 2001, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, and demand for oil weakened worldwide. After the September 11 attacks, air travel and economic activity fell further. The largest one-week decline of the year, 6.9¢, came in the week of October 1, and prices kept falling through the fall. The year’s low, $1.06 in the week of December 17, was about 65¢ below the May peak and remains the lowest weekly national average in the series. The daily New York Harbor wholesale price fell as low as 47¢ a gallon during the year.

The 2001 average of $1.42 places the year 25th among complete years since 1970 in current dollars, but 44th once inflation is taken out, which puts it in the cheapest quarter of the record. Its inflation-adjusted average, $2.58, is lower even than 2020’s $2.70, when pandemic restrictions cut driving across the country. Prices climbed steeply over the following decade. The 2011 average of $3.52 was 148.0% above 2001’s in current dollars, and 95.2% above it after adjusting for inflation.

Within 2001 the swing was unusually wide for its time. No other year from 2000 through 2004 had as large a gap between its most expensive week, here $1.71 on May 14, 2001, and its cheapest, $1.06 on December 17, 2001.

EIA’s state estimates for 2001, which count every grade sold rather than regular alone, show Hawaii alone at the top. Its all-grades average of $1.80 was 39.6¢ above the U.S. figure on the same basis, $1.41, and the next-highest state, Alaska, was well behind at $1.65. Georgia had the lowest price of any state, $1.21, ahead of Florida at $1.29.

The national average stood at $1.48 in 2000, and the 2001 average fell 4.3% from that level at the pump. In 2002 the average reached $1.35, a fall of 5.3% from 2001 at the pump. Adjusted to constant 2025 dollars (CPI-U), the fall from 2001 to 2002 was 6.8%.

Looking back to 1991, the national average was $1.12 at the pump. In constant 2025 dollars, the 2001 average fell 2.2% from the 1991 average. The 1991 to 2001 span straddles the 2000 switch, when the national figure became the mean of EIA's weekly U.S. regular-grade retail prices. For reference, the constant-dollar series stands at $5.08 in 2012, its peak for 1970 to 2025.

Within 2001, the highest and lowest weekly prices were 65.4¢ apart, and the annual mean draws on 53 weekly readings from EIA. Among states, Georgia and Hawaii were 59.6¢ apart in 2001, using annual averages for all grades from the EIA State Energy Data System. On that state basis, 31 of 51 states, D.C. included, were above the U.S. average in 2001.