The average price of a gallon of gasoline nationwide recently slipped below $3. Due to the war in Ukraine and concerns about the oil supply, it topped $5 in mid-2022. It was as low as $2.15 in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. And it was about that low in 2016, due primarily to an oversupply of oil, resulting from the shale boom.
As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, average per-gallon prices for unleaded gasoline were $4.61 in San Jose, $4.67 in Oakland, $4.76 in San Francisco, $4.75 in Los Angeles, and $4.66 in California. On Oct. 2, per-gallon prices for unleaded gas were $4.55 in San Jose, $4.65 in Oakland, $4.69 in San Francisco, $4.71 in Los Angeles, and $4.64 in California.
The nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute studied U.S. households' "energy wallet" - what they pay for gasoline, power, natural gas, heating oil and propane, and more. The big picture: Last year, total "wallet" spending averaged $5,530 per household, with $1,860 for electric bills and $2,930 for gasoline. That's pretty similar to 2020 levels in inflation-adjusted dollars. But there was lots of variation in between, largely from gasoline price changes, while power has been steadier.
