Buffalo in the 90s: Gas futures reach $1 for the first time

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

On this date 25 years ago– Aug. 20, 1990– gasoline hit a dollar in futures trading for the first time in history.

With the Gulf War just starting weeks earlier, gas prices would continue to rise past a buck in the coming months. It was the first time most folks had paid more than a dollar for a gallon of gas since the oil crisis of the late ’70s, although New York State taxes had bumped Buffalo-area gas prices above the dollar mark for at least a couple of years by this point.

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.