DieselDan

Compare apples to apples. The wholesale cost of gasoline or diesel is the same everywhere. The transportation cost, retail overhead, and the tax rate is what makes the difference between here or there. In South Carolina, we pay 37 cents per gallon (44th in the nation) while Canada and European nations tax fuel at a much higher rate to pay for social programs. By law, fuel tax can only be used for transportation related expenses in the USA.

Yeah, the OPEC folks are just lining their turbans by controlling the vast majority of the world's oil.

dobber

Then why did they boost production earlier in the year in an effort to bring down prices? Would they have not been happier with oil prices at $55.

Oil (and energy) prices were driven up by the speculative play of the market. Simple greed and a herd mentality. Did you see any stations posting "No Gas Today" signs this summer? The bubble burst, due in part to the producing countries pumping as much as they could, and prices dropped like a rock.

Oil hit $55 this fall and I paid $2.25 for gas. Last spring oil hover in the high $30 range yet I paid $2.50 for gas. Go figure.

Raiyn

Because he had the best liars on his team

smurfy

Yesterday I rode my bike to get some chow during my lunch break and as I was riding back to work I noticed the gas was $1.55/gal and a slew of trucks and SUVs almost out to the street were filling up. I should of yelled "pigs at the troft" as I was riding by but I didn't think of it at the time. I was shaking my head in disgust at how much we're addicted to oil!

cyclezealot

But when we were last in France...We fueled up in Paris and our litlle Fiat got us all the way to Lyon without fueling up..Liters/ KM did not figure mileage. But $60 of gas got us all the way to the south of France..Don't think a Hummer would do that..
US prices go to $3 a gallon maybe we will see more hybrids..
Bet at $3 gallon the equilivant cost of operating a Hummer would exceed that cost of driving from Paris to somewhere south of Lyon..
Maybe, $3 plus gas will see more cyclists soon on the commute and better facilities for bikes on mass transit...Might be good for me..
Don't need no stinkin SUV for toting my bikes..My roof rack/rear rack can accommadate up to three bikes.

cyclezealot

We need to travel overseas this coming February...Our nephew lives abroad..He has divested himself of all his convertible dollars..Like the rest of the world is in the process of doing...Our dollar has dropped almost 30% in the last three years.. Wow...
The world has voted on the current well being of the US economy..

Trab

There have been studies done that calculate "hidden" costs of gas in the US, factoring in things like subsidies paid to oil companies, military incursions in the Middle East, and environmental cleanup...all paid for by our tax dollars. It sent the cost of gas up between $6 and $10 per gallon.

humbike

Up here in Humboldt County CA I pay $2.65 per gal to fill up when I want to take a road trip. For that reason I never drive anywhere in town, only when I'm going more than 20miles will I drive. Since we should be running out of oil in the next 50 years if current consumption rates continue I think it's appropriate for it to become more expensive. Several years ago when I could still fill up for 99cents/gal in central CA I took a trip to northern canada and I was paying the equivalent of $5 US for a US gallon.

umpadumpy

Because the other guy had to lose.

TechJD

It dont really matter whos in office cause congress runs the country not the Pres

PainTrain

The real power isn't on Pennsylvania Avenue.

It's on Wall Street.

John Ridley

Citation please? I'd really like to have this argument available, but in the group I hang out with, you don't get to square one without the citation. Where/when/by whom were these studies done?

scarry

https://www.icta.org/ctanews/realpr.htm

hi565

GOOD POINT!

Brian

Yeah, I think I last paid AU$1.09/litre. Works out to about $4.50/gallon, I think. I was spoiled in California.

Brian

That's all well and good Koffee, but we all pay those taxes. In California, before I left, it cost about US$38 to fill my Toyota Landcruiser. Here, I have a Mitsubishi sedan, and it cost me over AU$60 to fill. Forget the exchange rate, or litres/gallons, or even the smaller tank in the sedan. It's a larger portion of my pocket money going into my petrol tank. Tax or no tax, I'm paying way more money for less fuel.

Dutchy

Expatriate: You have to remember that a US Gallon is 3.8 litres, not 4.5. With the exchange rate (what it is now about 72c?), it works out to around, $2.90 US per gallon, and 50% of that is tax.

CHEERS.

Mark

Dutchy

That's true. We pay more for just about everything, except when we go to Hospital, its virtually free.

CHEERS.

Mark

Brian

That's great when I'm visiting here and buying AU$1's for US$.76, but the point is that I live here now, and a larger portion of my pay goes to petrol. I know there's a lot of tax involved (like speed cameras and rego weren't even of a rip-off) but we're still forking over more at the pump. The local cost doesn't change with the exchange rate, so it really has no bearing.

SecretSatellite

another good website for citations and links to just about everything is www.culturechange.org. gas is so expensive in other parts of the world not because they are taxed more but are actually subsidized less. if our government didn't subsidize the industry gas prices would resemble those in europe. another thing about peak oil, we are at least 25 years away from a workable renewabel energy resource that can provide as much energy as oil. because our governemnt subsidizes oil and not research into renewable technologies we might be up ****creek in a few years when peak oil hits.

Dahon.Steve

What renewable energy resource is this? Trees? Water?

We don't have a replacement for oil and natural gas today and the forseable future and it would take a major scientific discovery on the same level as the atomic bomb to actually find a renewable technology. Don't believe for a second this discovery is just around the corner because it's not.

I still believe when the time comes, we'll return right back to coal for hydrogen/electro production which is why no one is concerned. We do have a nonrenewable resource that can last hundreds of years.

iceratt

Actually, we do have a very cheap replacement for a significant portion of oil used; it's called conservation. Petrochemicals pumped from the ground, or mined from shales won't go away, they'll just dwindle, and become more costly economically and environmentally to extract. Don't you think that there would be a huge difference in oil use, cost, and availibilty, if Americans drove more efficient cars less, than what the trend is towords now?

alanbikehouston

The grocery store in my neighborhood has a water aisle. Water is sold is 12 oz. bottles, 20 oz. bottles, half gallons and gallons. Some of the water is in fancy bottles from France. Some is sold in plain bottles, and appears to be nothing more than regular Texas tap water.

Depending on how FANCY the water, and the size of the bottle, the price ranges from about a dollar a gallon up to about five dollars a gallon. Two dollars a gallon is about average.

So, what I can't figure out is: how can someone drill an oil well in Iraq, ship the oil to Houston, refine it into gasoline, add about a half a dollar in various local, state, and federal taxes, and then sell gasoline for $2? As long as gasoline is cheaper than water, people will be using Suburbans to go two blocks to pick up one loaf of bread.

I wish gasoline sold for about ten dollars a gallon. People would learn how to walk, ride bikes, read a bus schedule, or run a car pool. Employers might learn to set up more modest sized operations in each neighborhood, rather than run "mega" sized facilities that import thousands of workers commuting from thirty, forty, or fifty miles away.

Oil will be scarce within our grandchildrens' lifetimes (whether that is in thirty years, sixty years, or two hundred years). School children of the future will read with amazement how the Americans who lived between 1950 and 2050 used up more than half of the earth's supply of oil during a century-long orgy of waste.

soda

I totally agree. It seems that the only way we can get Americans to rethink transportation is through higher gas costs. I can't remember who said it but higher oil prices do mean higher everything so I only wish there was some way to make diesel cheaper so that the semis transporting our goods don't feel the pinch.

sbhikes

I laught at all of you except the guy in Humbolt. Last summer you may have seen the gas station with $3 gas on the news? It was in Santa Barbara. Gas is about $2.50 now.