WDBJ7 Archive: Gas prices in the headlines 50 years ago
Published: Sep. 1, 2023 at 7:20 PM EDT
ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - 50 years ago this week, gas prices were in the news.
It wasn’t four dollars a gallon, but 43 cents a gallon, making the headlines in September 1973.
Price controls were in effect, and gasoline retailers said they were barely making enough to cover their expenses.
“I have to pay my rent, which right at this present time is one and a half cents a gallon, leaving me five and a half cents gross profit on a gallon of gasoline,” one gas station owner told WDBJ7.
The effects of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo would send gasoline prices higher, topping 50 cents a gallon in 1974.
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