A lot of folks probably don't recall that 9-10-11 years ago, we had gas prices around Labor Day that were pushing into the same neighborhood we're in now.

   Labor Day gas prices highest in 9 years, according to govt. stats

   The US Energy Information Website keeps track of national averages for fuel for every month, every year from coast to coast.  According to their latest figures and those from GasBuddy.com, our Labor Day pump prices will be the highest since Obama was in office, over 9 years ago.

A quick glance shows between 2008 and 2012, we had September (Labor Day) gas prices anywhere from $3.75, to $3.90, $3.60 per gallon for regular unleaded during that time.

From 2016 through 2020, they trended downward from $2.91 to $2.27. Now some experts claim 2020 lows were due to low demand because of COVID. But September 2020 saw the lowest gas prices for the holiday in 16 years.

  How are local prices doing?

 GasBuddy.com and other experts project a national average this weekend of $3.79 per gallon for regular unleaded, however regional prices are higher.

As of Thursday, September 1st around noon, the lowest Mid-Columbia price we found was $4.09, and some other vendors selling at $4.10 and $4.11 respectively.   Numerous other outlets were anywhere from $4.23 to as high as $4.42 per gallon.

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GasBuddy reports prices in Yakima as low as $3.95, while in Spokane was about where we are. Walla Walla?  You're getting hammered with the lowest GasBuddy reported price at $4.37. 

Happy Traveling!

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

 

 

 

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