Prices at the Pump Jump by 19 Cents

The nation’s average gasoline price jumped to a new high of $3.057 a gallon Monday, according to AAA -- passing even the inflation-adjusted record set in 1981.

The average price for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline was up 19 cents from Sunday and up nearly 46 cents from Aug. 26, three days before Hurricane Katrina knocked out most of the Gulf Coast’s oil industry, including nine refineries, which account for 10% of U.S. gasoline production, and two crucial fuel pipelines into the Midwest and Northeast.

Gasoline was last this expensive in March 1981, after Iran’s revolution. The price then was $1.417 a gallon, which would equal $3.05 today after adjusting for inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Average pump prices hovered above $3 a gallon Monday in all but 15 states and were highest in Maryland ($3.26 a gallon) and Delaware ($3.227). Gasoline in Washington, D.C., hit $3.258 a gallon, AAA said, based on a daily survey of gasoline stations.

In California, the average price for regular gas shot to new heights Monday, reaching $3.05 a gallon, up from $2.951 on Sunday. That’s also nearly an inflation-adjusted record, almost reaching 1981 levels, although the picture gets a little murky on the state level because gasoline prices were sampled then by city, not state, and only once a month.

Data gathered monthly by the labor bureau to track inflation show Los Angeles gasoline prices peaking at $1.432 a gallon in 1981, or $3.07 in current dollars, and San Francisco topping out at $1.458 a gallon in 1981, or $3.14 now. On Monday, gas averaged $2.996 a gallon in Los Angeles and $3.07 in San Francisco.

Experts predict that fuel price increases could begin to slow. Four of the hobbled refineries are restarting operations and the two pipelines are transporting fuel again, the Energy Department said Monday. And tankers of oil and gasoline are headed to U.S. shores to replenish depleted inventories.