Keeping An Eye on the Gas Price

The US Energy Information Administration publishes data on average retail gasoline prices. This lets us keep an eye on the general condition of the country's gasoline economy. As you can see from the chart, gasoline has been gradually getting expensive over the last while. We are now are a national average just above $2.80. That is still far below the spike of summer 2008. However, it is all too easy to fall into the "boiling frog trap" ... the phenomenon where slow changes are ignored until it is too late. The gradual upward trend in the gas price is a sign that we had better prepare for expensive gasoline in the future, even if right now it is not so bad.