I Searched, but Found no Justification for Gasoline-Price Increases

 So, the average price for a gallon of gas is down to $3.45. Should we be satisfied, or say, no, that's not near enough?

  Say, no, it's not near enough. It was 36 cents fifty years ago. What's changed? Is oil more expensive to drill for, produce, or distribute? Or, have the oil barons just been increasing their take all along? An almost tenfold increase in price argues that it is being sold for vastly more than it needs to be. 

  Crude oil was about $25 a barrel fifty years ago; today it's about $80. So, the increase in money being taken is being taken mostly after being refined. Has the process of refining oil gone up, became more expensive? We can guess it hasn't had that significant increase, but what of mandates imposed to cut down on pollution? 

   It was also about fifty years ago that the EPA started to phase out lead in gasoline. Lead gas was about 3 to 10 cents cheaper than no-lead. That is worthy to note, but hardly indicative of gas prices going up so much over the years. 

   There are fewer refineries in operation than there once were; has that led to such a massive increase in the at-the-pump price? I doubt it.

   We pay 18.4 cents federal tax on a gallon of gas. That's significant. It was only 4 cents in 1972, and did not jump until 1982 and 1990 -- but pump prices declined, if anything, after both jumps. So, don't blame it on federal taxes.

   State taxes have soared. They were about 7 cents a gallon fifty years ago. Now, the average tax is about 29 cents a gallon. That still doesn't account for a tenfold increase in prices at the pump. One of the bigger jumps came when the state tax average went up just more than 2 cents from 1990 to 1991. Pump prices dropped 14 cents. So, don't blame it on state taxes.

   There's my search to see if there's justification for gasoline prices being so high. I can find no reason. Reason for gas to cost more than it did fifty years ago? Yes. But reason for it to be tenfold more expensive? Not at all. Prices having soared from 36 cents a gallon fifty years ago to $3.45 now just are not justified.