Gas Prices Too High? Don’t Pay for It.

By John Higham, VP of Communications and Public Affairs

I’m old enough to remember when gas prices were 18 cents a gallon. My dad complained when they hit 25 cents.

By the time I was old enough to drive and start buying gas myself, the 1973 oil embargo had pushed prices to around 60 cents a gallon. At the time, that felt shocking. Americans suddenly discovered just how vulnerable they were to events happening half a world away.

More than 50 years later, not much has changed.

Gas prices still rise whenever global instability threatens oil supply, refining capacity, or shipping routes. Prices shoot up quickly, then drift back down painfully slowly…if they come back down at all. Every time tensions rise in the oil producing regions of the world, American drivers brace themselves for another hit to the wallet. Because once energy prices rise, there are ripple effects throughout the economy.

The frustrating part is that most drivers feel powerless over it. The sad truth is that they are.

Gasoline is tied to a global commodity market that ordinary consumers cannot control. Oil prices move because of geopolitics, refinery outages, speculation, seasonal demand, and disruptions on the other side of the world from your local gas station. For decades, Americans simply accepted that this was normal. But it doesn’t have to be that way anymore.

EV drivers experience fuel price spikes…differently. Driving an EV you will wake up every morning with a “full tank.” Most importantly, the electricity powering your home and your car is made far closer to home and it doesn’t spike overnight due to geopolitical hotspots erupting. 

That’s pure bliss and somewhat ironically, the way it should be.  

While some people definitely drive electric due to their very real environmental advantages, the core value proposition of EVs has quietly shifted. Driving electric is no longer just about being green. It’s about opting out. It’s about protection from volatility. An EV is essentially an insurance policy against oil price spikes.

Let’s math this out. A gas car getting 28 MPG costs roughly 16 cents per mile to fuel at $4.50 per gallon. A typical EV charging at home costs closer to 4–6 cents per mile depending on local electricity rates, making the gas car three times more costly to operate per mile. The bonus is that oil markets are inherently unstable, while electrical rates are stable and predictable.

Ironically, the people least stressed during fuel price spikes are EV owners who charge almost entirely at home and rarely think about gas prices. That freedom is hard to appreciate until you experience it.

Best of all, you don’t need a brand-new luxury EV to get there. The used EV market has matured dramatically. Many drivers can switch to an EV for less monthly cost than they currently spend on gasoline alone — especially if they charge at home.

For most of my life, Americans had no real alternative to gasoline. Now they do.

So, you can keep riding the roller coaster, or you can step off it. Because in 2026, there is another option. Just stop buying the stuff.