Category
What families have paid at the pump and the meter, over 45 years, with the post-2020 spike that put energy back on the front page.
Energy is the most volatile category in the Reality Index. Gasoline tracks oil prices, which respond to geopolitics, OPEC decisions, and US shale production. Electricity tracks regulated utility rates and fuel input costs. Over 45 years, the energy composite has tracked CPI All Items closely (3.09× vs 3.91×) — but the path has been far choppier than CPI.
Within the category, the story splits: gasoline has actually underperformed inflation in the long run, while electricity is roughly in line. The post-2020 spike in both is the most dramatic move in the energy data since the 1970s oil shocks.
Each card below links to the full chart page for that item — including retail dollar series, BLS CPI subindex for that category, and the long-history backstop where available. Multiples shown are 1980-anchored unless the underlying data series doesn't extend that far back.
Composite construction. Equal-weighted average of gasoline (retail per-gallon, EIA Monthly Energy Review) and electricity (residential per-kWh, BLS Average Price Data). Indexed to 1980 = 100.
What's not in this composite. The headline Reality Index utilities bucket also includes natural gas (BLS subindex) and water/sewer (BLS subindex), neither of which has independent retail dollar data we can use here. For the headline calculation, both are weighted within the utilities bucket per BLS CES Relative Importance.
Long-history note. Gasoline data extends to 1950 in the underlying EIA series (see the gasoline chart for the full 75-year view). Electricity starts in 1979 in BLS APU. The 1980-anchored view above is what the headline rate uses; the individual chart pages show fuller history.