There is nothing like the freedom of being able to take a long drive somewhere. Roll the windows down, turn the radio up and just cruise. Whether it is a nice afternoon ride home after a long week at work, or a road trip to somewhere fun, there is something special about driving. But there is going to come a day in the near future when the car or truck that that gas powered vehicle you are used to driving will need an electric charge.

The push to go more energy efficient or more "green" is becoming a reality in California and New York State is not that far behind.


New York lawmakers have put together something similar
New York lawmakers have also made similar legislation

The law set the goal for the state to require zero emissions for any new cars, trucks, off-road vehicles, and equipment sold in the state by 2035. Heavy- and medium-duty truck sales will be required to follow suit by 2045.

While we wait for things to change, the price of gasoline has backed off a little bit here in New York State. Even though we are still paying over $4 per gallon, it is cheaper than the $5 we were paying a few months ago.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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