Washington’s Annual Spring Gas Price Bounce:
Which one was 2023?

As sure as spring, the days get longer, the flowers bloom, and the robins sing. But there’s a thornier tradition as well: gas prices go up as the summer approaches. Once again, prices are bouncing upwards even as carbon prices fall. Both the average and median price bounce has been 74 cents per gallon since 2004*. Some try to frame recent spring bounces as driven by recent climate laws that have been enacted.

Was 2023 really unusual?

Take as many guesses as you need to reveal which column in the chart below shows 2023’s spring bounce.

Spring’s Washington State Gasoline Price Bounce

Annual increases from winter (Dec-Feb) to summer (May-July) by year since 2004

*Inflation-adjusted values to put yearly increases most closely in present-day dollars.  2020 is excluded from the average and median as an outlier with a clear cause – COVID and the related impact on transportation fuel demand.  Data is taken from the US EIA Weekly Retail Gasoline and Diesel Prices database and adjusted for past inflation using the US EIA real prices viewer.