The Price of Gas

[jackofallgeeks]

So, gas around my house is about $3.90 a gallon. This
article parrots what I've been hearing from Europeans for the last 18
months, that they wish they had it so good: the article says that gas prices
in the Uk are about $11.50 per American gallon! But what's even more
stunning is that it casually remarks that taxes and fees make up about 70%
of the price of fuel in the UK and France. What that means is that if not
for the taxes fuel in the UK would cost $3.45 per American gallon!.
That is NOT a small difference. Add on a small margin for more-reasonable
taxes and fees and the Brits would be paying about what we are. If their
prices are so bad, they have only their government to blame.

Comments

[dikaiosunh.livejournal.com]

It's neither quite as big a gap as they make out nor as small as you do. In Maryland, the total federal & state tax on gasoline is 48.7% (http://www.api.org/policy/tax/stateexcise/upload/December_2007_notes.pdf).

So, if $3.90 is 1.487 times the "actual" cost of gas, that means that gas in Maryland "really" costs $2.62. If you're right that the no-tax cost of fuel in the UK is $3.45, then if they paid the same taxes, it would cost them $5.13, still a significant chunk more than we pay.

Of course, this ignores the fact that there are reasons for gas taxes. Pure revenue (it pays for stuff - MD has a huge structural budget deficit right now) and capturing negative externalities are prime among them.

It might be better to read the Brits as saying, in effect, "look, you all are bellyaching about how you can't make ends meet on your relatively cheap, under-taxed petrol - while we've got a sensible energy policy that drives the price up on top of a higher base cost, and seem to be making do (except for our lorry drivers)."

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

The power to tax is the power to destroy, or so it has been said.

[laurelei28.livejournal.com]

ok gas here is $4.50

i hate it