At the Exxon station at Main Avenue and East Park Avenue, a gallon of regular gas cost Joe Laventure, owner of Back Country Solar, barely $2.75 at the well-worn pump he visited Tuesday to fill up his old blue Ford Ranger.
How times change.
In July 2008, as America neared a financial meltdown at home in the midst of waging years-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Durango gas stations were charging $4.22 on average for a gallon of regular unleaded gas – the highest recorded price for gasoline in Durango history, according to AAA’s daily fuel gauge.
Since the Industrial Revolution, even small variations in the price of oil on the global market have sent everyday Americans into conniptions.
Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at Gasbuddy.com, said Colorado residents need not fret over fuel prices rising 20 cents in the last month.
“Colorado has seen a gentle increase since April,” he said. “Now, it’s up to $2.62, but we expect the trend to fizzle entirely.”
At Exxon, Laventure said gas prices are an inalienable aspect of trying to eke out a living in rural Colorado.
“These days, it doesn’t hurt,” Laventure said. “It starts to hurt once it’s above $3 – then it affects your personal life, your business decisions – even indirectly your income.”
In fact, gas prices have tumbled since May 2014, when La Plata County residents were shelling out $3.47 a gallon to fill up their tanks.
Wave Dreher, AAA Colorado spokesperson, said gas prices’ plunging 70 cents in the last year is spurring travel statewide. The most recent statistics show that “On Memorial Day, we saw the highest volume of holiday travelers in 10 years: 88 percent were in cars,” she said.
Dreher said though a rebounding national economy no doubt played a large role in the fact that Memorial Day saw the highest volume of holiday travelers in a decade, gas prices explain why the vast majority were traveling by automobile.
“Colorado families can see a lot of the beauty of where we live, meaning the trip becomes about the journey, not the destination” unlike air travel, she said.
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
