Martin,
It's actually partly used to pay for socialized medical coverage for everyone and a living wage for those out of work. The prices are what drives the consumer to the higher efficiency vehicles, but there are social benefits not found in the US.

 

You get plus? I filled up at the Speedway at 12 and Mound today at $2.29.

 

Down to $2.10 today in Columbus.

 

I filled up at $2.09 at a small gas station in Kenner, LA (near New Orleans). To the people complaining about prices being too high in cities like NY: they should be used to paying higher prices for EVERYTHING relative to states with lower cost of living.

 

The average taxes (Federal, State and Local) on a gallon of gasoline is $0.459/gal according to this link:

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/1054.html

The wholesale gasoline price this morning was about $1.55/gal. Add taxes and a little bit for profit and transportation and you arrive at the current price of about $2.10 - $2.20/gal. Why is it still at $2.89 in Utah and $2.27 in Missouri. Both have similar taxes (Utah taxes are actually $0.03 lower)?

We're being played like a fiddle by big oil. It's obviously not a free market and has not been for quite a while.

Let's face it, we're addicted to oil. We need to take decisive action to cure the addiction. Raising motor fuel taxes or gas guzzler taxes are two ways to drive the point home in a hurry which is exactly what we need to do.

We're past the point of worrying about who gets re-elected. We got ourselves into this situation in the first place because we don't (as a nation) have a comprehensive energy policy in place. Now it's going to be a little painful for all of us to get our priorities straightened out and start managing and using energy responsibly. A serious intervention is in order.

It just PO's me to no end when I see a parade of large SUV's with one occupant each trying to out accelerate each other from stoplight to stoplight. It's crazy. It's insane. It's completely out of control. The worst part about it is that it's still happening, and the current freefall of prices is not helping.

Worse than the SUV's are the motorhomes and large 5th wheel travel trailers. I don't know how folks can afford to drive these things. A 36' Bounder Motorhome with a Ford V-10 get's 6mpg on a good day. That's $0.50 a mile just in fuel costs!!! Not to mention the CO2 and other pollutants that those things release. Because they are considered a truck and not a passenger vehicle, their pollution controls are very minimal, and many don't even have catalytic converters. One big motorhome probably wipes out the gains of 20 Pruis drivers in fuel economy and emissions. But I digress....

It is sure a lot less painful to start conserving when you are not forced to. it gives everyone a chance to ease into some of the programs gradually and not see the sharp price spikes that the natural disasters and political uncertanties cause. It's sure easier to change our collective behavour in a reasonable, moderate, and controlled method than it is to cruise along in autopilot until one day it all hits the fan. I remember the gas lines of the 70's. It was not pleasant.

The next time we get something like a Katrina our gasoline won't cost $3 a gallon, it's going to cost $6 or $8 or $10 a gallon. The worst part about it all is that it could easily happen tomorrow.

 

$1.89 a gallon here in Virginia Beach, VA last week.

Chris

 

Great news for those of us "lucky" enough to be stuck in the People's Republic of Massachusetts. And they wonder why we are the only state in the country losing population. Unless you are an illegal alien or welfare recipient, the idiots running this state have no use for you....15 more years and I'll be joining the exodus.

And they are announcing this in an election year. Otherwise it would probably be 18 cents.

 

Wait until the solon braintrust sobers up and figures out that hybrids use less fuel thus paying less in road use taxes. That's when they will really get their greedy hooks into us. Let's see, maybe they'll reinstate the $100/$1,000 excise tax assessment they charge us just for the privelge of owning a car. Welcome to Taxachusetts.

 

Fortunately there isn't much chance of that happening. Although they can do quite a bit of damage while inebriated.

It is kind of ironic that while encouraging energy conservation, they depend on high consumption. You are probably right unfortunately.

 

Have you ever heard of overhead? When you fill your car's gasoline tank, you are paying for sales taxes, state excise taxes, federal excise taxes, the gasoline station's property taxes, any additional taxes that are added by any level of government, the cost of transporting the gasoline tot he gasoline station and the income of the people working at the gasoline station, in addition to what the gasoline costs the gasoline station.

If you have a problem with the gasoline prices, write to your representatives at the federal, state and local levels of government and propose that they replace taxes on gasoline with taxes on new gasoline guzzler sales. If enough people wrote to them complaining about how they are failing to punish people who buy gasoline guzzlers and that they are instead punishing people for using gasoline in general, we would see huge declines in sales of gasoline guzzlers, gasoline consumption, gasoline prices (because of the decline in demand) and the country's carbon dioxide emissions over the following decade.

Edit: Heck, do not just write a letter, write several and send one a week. It will have much greater impact than you think. Ronald Reagan had people in California use this tactic to lobby the state legislature when he was governor and the results were amazing.