Does the price of gasoline really go up right before the holiday weekend?
You can almost hear your dad grumbling to no one in particular as he loads the Wagon Queen Family Truckster: “Gas always goes up before the holiday weekend!”
Turns out, the old man might have been on to something. — Barry Osborne, The Denver PostSome leaps in average prices more painful
For the years 1991 to 2008, national average gas prices increased from the last week of April to the last week of May in 12 out of 18 years, according to U.S. Department of Energy records. Though the increases were modest in many years, the national average price took a painful leap in 2007, when the cost of a gallon of regular unleaded jumped 9.6 percent, to $3.20 from $2.92, and in 2008, when the price increased 9.5 percent, to $3.91 from $3.57.
Looking back to 2001 — the first year for which records are available — average prices increased in Colorado and Denver in four years, with the biggest hikes occurring in 2007 and 2008. In 2007, Colorado’s average price leaped 12.6 percent from $2.94 to $3.31, while Denver’s spiked 13.4 percent from $2.91 to $3.30. In 2008, both Colorado and Denver’s average prices rose 10.9 percent from $3.48 to $3.86.
Changes in gas prices from the last week of April to the last week of May, based on price rounded up to the nearest cent:
Nation Colo. Denver
1991 +3.6 NA NA
1992 +4.7 NA NA
1993 +1.8 NA NA
1994 +1.9 NA NA
1995 +5.3 NA NA
1996 0.0 NA NA
1997 +0.8 NA NA
1998 +1.9 NA NA
1999 -0.9 NA NA
2000 +7.1 NA NA
2001 +4.4 +7.3 +6.1
2002 0.0 -2.1 -2.2
2003 -3.4 -2.0 -1.4
2004 +13.0 +9.3 +9.9
2005 -6.8 -5.9 -6.3
2006 -3.5 -1.8 -1.4
2007 +9.6 +12.6 +13.4
2008 +9.5 +10.9 +10.9
While we can’t know what the increase will be this holiday weekend, at about $2.24 a gallon, Denver’s average gas price for the week of May 18 is about 39 percent less than it was last year at this time, when it was $3.68.
Nation Colo. Denver
April 20 $2.03 $2.02 $2.02
May 18 $2.28 $2.25 $2.24
% change +12.3 +11.4 +10.9
Note: All figures “Retail Conventional Regular Gasoline Prices,” as tracked by the DOE.
Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, Denver Post archives
