An historical look at gas and oil prices, presented in a recent Tribune Chronicle report, shows the cost didn't really get steep until the Bush era, and then even steeper during the Obama era. This trend is another reason to push natural gas powered vehicles.
According to the research, the price of gasoline, adjusted for inflation, was $2.21 per gallon in 1930. Before President Bush took office, the cost peaked at $2.40 in 1940 and sunk as low as $1.57 in 1990. Not even during the Arab oil embargo was the inflation-adjusted price higher than in 1940.
But in the decade-to-decade price comparison, gasoline shot up to $2.85 per gallon, adjusted for inflation, in 2010, 48 percent higher than in 2000. It shot up to $3.60 in 2012, a 26 percent increase in just two years.
Oil prices compared similarly.
The trend so far this decade is a bad one, despite two different presidents and two different political parties holding power in the U.S. This trend is another reason to end the U.S.'s energy dependence.
A leading contributor toward energy independence would be an aggressive, but safe, Utica Shale exploration policy, a large natural gas exportation limit and encouragement to transition transportation vehicles to operate on natural gas. There is enough excitement in the industry that, unlike other alternative energy sources, natural gas can be purely market driven; little to no government investment is necessary.
Considering how much natural gas is believed to be in the Utica Shale beneath Trumbull, Columbiana and other nearby counties, the local impact would be enormous.