Gas station on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, Richmond, 7/7/2022
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
There was much wailing — on this blog, in Virginia, and in the nation — as gas prices approached and then exceeded $5 per gallon recently. Governor Youngkin and President Biden used those price levels to call for suspension of gas taxes.
And what was the reaction of the general populace to those high prices, except complaining? Did folks decide to drive less? Nope. AAA projected that road travel this summer would approach the levels of 2019, when gas was much cheaper. Are they driving slower? After all, gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds over 50 mph. Anyone who tries to travel on I-95 between Richmond and Northern Virginia driving about 65 mph, as I did a couple of weeks ago, knows the answer to that question.
But wait! As shown in the photo above, gas can be readily found in the Richmond area for $4.39, or less, per gallon. That’s 60 cents per gallon less than it was the last time I filled the tank on my car. That includes the inflation-adjusted increase in the gas tax that Steve Haner recently warned us about. That price decrease and price level are better than they would have been under Governor Youngkin’s proposal at the time he put it forward.
Funny, but I haven’t seen anything on these pages about this decrease. Of course, it is more fun to complain about price increases than celebrate their decreases.
