Virginia Gas Prices This Week

In the EIA’s July 2026 (revised August 2026) table of motor fuel taxes, Virginia’s state taxes and fees on gasoline total 42.4¢ a gallon, the 9th-highest of the 50 states and D.C. The 51-jurisdiction average is 33.8¢, and the federal tax adds 18.4¢ everywhere. A 2020 law, HB 1414, replaced Virginia’s percentage-based gasoline tax with a per-gallon rate: 21.2¢ from July 1, 2020, and 26.2¢ from July 1, 2021, adjusted each July 1 since 2022 for inflation. A separate regional fuels tax, charged statewide and also indexed, appears in the EIA table as the motor vehicle fuels sales tax.

Virginia has no operating refineries in the EIA’s January 2026 survey. Its gasoline comes mainly through the Colonial and Plantation pipelines, which cross the state carrying fuel from Gulf Coast refineries, and through marine terminals in Hampton Roads. Federal reformulated gasoline is required in Northern Virginia, the Richmond area, and parts of Hampton Roads; the rest of the state uses conventional gasoline.

In the EIA’s annual state series, Virginia has become steadily cheaper relative to the country. Its average gap was 0.8¢ above the U.S. figure in the 1970s, then 5.5¢ below in the 2000s, 11.1¢ below in the 2010s, and 23.6¢ below in 2020–2024. It ranked 33rd-cheapest of 51 in 1980, 13th in 2000, 9th in 2022, and 14th in 2024. In 2022, when the U.S. average set its record, Virginia averaged $3.56, 33.1¢ below the U.S. figure. Adjusted for inflation its peak was 1981, at $4.94 in 2025 dollars. The largest one-year increases were 1980 (42.2%) and 1974 (40.0%).

Virginia has no weekly EIA series. It belongs to the EIA’s Lower Atlantic region (PADD 1C), whose weekly prices, averaged over 2004–2025, are 7.7% below the year’s average in January, already 2.2% above in April, and 5.1% above in June. The region as a whole averaged 30¢ below the U.S. figure in 2022.

Among the six areas that border Virginia, only Tennessee, at $3.08, averaged less than Virginia's $3.09 in 2024. Virginia's 2024 figure was 9.3¢ below North Carolina at $3.18, 8.8¢ below Kentucky at $3.17 and 23.8¢ below Maryland at $3.32. It was also 24.7¢ below West Virginia ($3.33) and 39.3¢ below the District of Columbia ($3.48).

Virginia's rank counted from the cheapest was 23rd in 1970 and 33rd in 1980. In 1990 it was 34th-cheapest, and by 2000 it was 13th-cheapest. The ranking was 14th-cheapest in 2010, 13th-cheapest in 2020 and 14th-cheapest in 2024. The cheapest ranking in any year from 1970 to 2024 was 8th-cheapest in 2007, and the least favourable was 47th-cheapest (4th-most-expensive) in 1977.

Against the U.S. average, Virginia was above in 21 of 55 years, and the widest excess was 6.6¢ in 1989. The widest gap below was 33.1¢ in 2022, the same year Virginia reached its highest annual average at the pump, $3.56.

Prices in 1980 stood at $1.25, after the largest one-year rise in Virginia's annual average, 42.2%. The 2020 average was $1.99. In constant 2025 dollars, the 2024 average of $3.17 compares with a peak of $4.94 in 1981. Virginia's taxes and fees on gasoline were 8.6¢ (EIA table, July 2026) above the 33.8¢ average across the 50 states and D.C.