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The price of gasoline affects everything and everyone.
As gas prices rise, shipping, travel, transportation, and commuting all become more expensive. And as gas prices fall, more money is left available to governments, transnational corporations, small businesses, and private citizens.
The price of gasoline can surge based on political or military conflict, natural or manmade disasters, and myriad other factors.
Despite the uncertainty associated with gasoline prices, the cost of a gallon of gasoline today is relatively similar to what it was 10 years ago, however, it's experienced some ups and downs in that time span. Read on to see how the cost of fuel has fluctuated over the last decade.
Flash backward a decade, and prices weren't all too different. The cost of gas had plummeted from an all time high of $4.11 per gallon in July 2008 to $2.57 by mid-October 2009 as the Great Recession unfolded.
By the end of that October, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel was $2.67, or about $3.08 in today's money, adjusting for inflation.
But gas prices rose dramatically in 2011. From then until late 2014, the national average remained above $3 per gallon of regular gas. According to CNN Money, experts primarily blamed tensions with Iran and a resurgent global economy for the price hike.
As domestic oil prices remained high across the board from 2011 to 2014, the US surpassed both Russia and Saudi Arabia in the production of petroleum and natural gas, becoming the world's largest producer of natural gas in 2012 and petroleum in 2013.
Gas prices have ticked up since the beginning of the year, and are now sitting around $2.64 per gallon. While today's prices resemble the lows seen after the 2008 recession, diesel prices haven't quite recovered — selling today for $3.05.