New way to protest high gas prices

[oscartherabbit]

I think a lot of people are missing the point here. Supply isn't the problem. Most oil companies are recording record profits - check their SEC filings if you don't believe me.

s1m0n et al. are right. Supply and demand are exactly the problem. Demand for oil the world over is outstripping supply quite substantially. Saudi Arabia - the world's largets producer and exporter of oil - have had the chokes wide open for some time, and simply can't produce any more than they are at present. If they could, they would, because a high oil price does not do them any favours in the long term as it brings a risk of economic slow-down and crash for their customers. High oil prices is not a US domestic issue, but a global economic one.

[avanutria]

My wife said yesterday on her way to work that prices at the local "gas 'n go cheapo joint" was $2.89. On her way home 12 hours later it was $3.39. A jump of 50 cents a gallon.

In Quebec yesterday morning, the price was $1.10 per litre. In the afternoon it was $1.34. An increase of approx. 20%.

I saw a newspaper stall headline today that said prices of over £1 per liter are headed our way. That translates to $7 per gallon.

($1.82 per pound, 3.79 litres per US gallon.)

[Caj]

It was 2.89 out here yesterday, and 3.09 today.

Caj

[jkrazy52]

Tyler, some of what you're talking about is why I live in the country!
Closest town is 20 miles, and of the 4 towns within an hour's drive only one has any public transportation. We do have some Amish families near by -- may have to borrow a horse & buggy ... soon!

Gas here on Tuesday night was $2.599, Wednesday morning it was $3.099. The really sad part of the price of gas here -- there's a Marathon refinery within 30 miles. We pay more for gas than in the larger cities 150 miles away, where the gas is trucked ... from here.

Fuel prices will raise everything. Independent truckers are already in trouble. This will put several I know completely out of business.

Judy

[jbarter]

With regard to the comparative prices of fuel in the US/UK, does anyone know where you can get a comparison of the cost with the 'tax factor' taken out?

[GaryKelly]

With regard to the comparative prices of fuel in the US/UK, does anyone know where you can get a comparison of the cost with the 'tax factor' taken out?

Nope. But according to this:

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.c ... line%20tax

The US federal gasoline tax runs around 20%, while here in the UK it runs around 80%.

Which means what we pay in tax per gallon is more than the total cost of a gallon in the USA... according to that article anyway (and I have no reason to doubt it).

[jkrazy52]

The US federal gasoline tax runs around 20%, while here in the UK it runs around 80%.

If I'm calculating correctly:

Gas in UK is ~ $7.00 a gallon, 80% of that is taxes ($5.60), so the actual cost of the fuel is $1.40.

Gas in the US (in my area) ~$3.10 a gallon, 20% for taxes is $.62, leaving our actual fuel cost $2.48. (Wonder if the state tax is accounted for in the 20%? We get the fun of paying both federal & state taxes on gasoline.)

This has the USA paying almost twice as much for gas as the UK -- y'all just pay higher taxes.

Thanks for the info, Gary -- you have my utmost sympathy!

Judy

[GaryKelly]

Aye. The trouble is, of course, that calculating the actual cost of a gallon of petrol (US or Imperial) is a black art in itself. When asked, the oil companies will blather on about the cost of crude, cost of transporting the crude, refining, transporting the petrol, gross margins, then filling-station mark-up...

And of course the whole lot varies from country to country (so a litre of Texaco petrol costs a different amount to produce in the UK, the USA, EU, Nigeria, wherever).

Heard a rumour today that Katrina will impact the UK's petrol prices too; apparently, so the rumour goes, the US government aren't releasing any of their gas reserves...consequently, a fleet of 20 supertankers have been commissioned to carry refined product (petrol) from the UK's refineries to the US to cover the shortfall in production there. Which means of course that supply in the UK will be hit, which of course means an increase in pump prices here over and above any rise resulting from increased crude prices. But like all rumours, dunno if it's true!

One of the big gripes about fuel price hikes here has always been that the pump price always seems to rise immediately the cost of a barrel of oil goes up, even though the oil companies are refining stuff they bought 'cheaper' and have reserves at the old price waiting to be refined. But the pump price of course never drops when the cost of a bbl of crude drops ('because we're still refining the expensive stuff we bought a couple of months ago', say the oil companies).

[GaryKelly]

Found this on the Beeb:

UK price breakdown of a litre of petrol costing 82p at the pump

[fearfaoin]

Gas in the US (in my area) ~$3.10 a gallon, 20% for taxes is $.62, leaving our actual fuel cost $2.48. (Wonder if the state tax is accounted for in the 20%? We get the fun of paying both federal & state taxes on gasoline.)

Absolutely. Here in NC, as well as in Ohio, the state gas tax is around 26%, putting the base price around 1.69.

<a href="http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp">Here's a complete list of state gas taxes</a>

Also, for those US folks who are interested, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/ ... prices/">a list of gas prices in selected countries</a>, adjusted for dollars/gallon
It seems that Amsterdam has the highest prices at $6.48/gal and Venezuela has the cheapest at $.19/gal.
(though, press time was probably months ago...)

[Tyler]

Aye. The trouble is, of course, that calculating the actual cost of a gallon of petrol (US or Imperial) is a black art in itself.

dabbling in the Black Arts again are ye?

Heard a rumour today that Katrina will impact the UK's petrol prices too; apparently, so the rumour goes, the US government aren't releasing any of their gas reserves...consequently, a fleet of 20 supertankers have been commissioned to carry refined product (petrol) from the UK's refineries to the US to cover the shortfall in production there. Which means of course that supply in the UK will be hit, which of course means an increase in pump prices here over and above any rise resulting from increased crude prices. But like all rumours, dunno if it's true!

I'd heard something like that last night, but had also heard on CNN that the US govt was trying to release fed reserves to combat the shortage...that would make a bit more sense, thinking in the short term...it'd keep the UK prices from jumping, for one thing....

I was wondering, where or what programs do the taxes on UK fuel go into? Here it can be kind of fuzzy...

[GaryKelly]

I was wondering, where or what programs do the taxes on UK fuel go into? Here it can be kind of fuzzy...

No-one knows. It certainly isn't maintenance of the roads. For that, we pay what was once called a "Road Fund License" which is now called a "Vehicle Excise License". It's an annual tax we have to pay per vehicle, to be able to use the vehicle on a road. They changed the name because the tax clearly didn't fund construction or maintenance of our roads.

The cost of the 'tax disc' (which we have to display on the vehicle) varies according to vehicle type and engine size. A bit cheaper for smaller engines than larger, and incredibly cheaper for motorbikes than cars.

So we pay tax on vehicle purchase (car tax and VAT), tax on the fuel, and a tax to actually use the vehicle on roads.

In London (and in other places soon) there's also a 'congestion charge' levied for driving into the city. Other towns are looking at toll roads. Oh and there's the cost of parking too, very few towns these days have free parking in the shopping centres.

Motoring is a huge source of revenue for HMG.

[oscartherabbit]

I was wondering, where or what programs do the taxes on UK fuel go into? Here it can be kind of fuzzy...

We don't have any kind of hypothecation in the UK. All tax revenue, regardless of where it comes from, is spent by the government as it sees fit.

[Tyler]

Interesting...to say the least...I dont mind being taxed, personally, even if it means paying a bit more for things, but I sure would like to know why I'm being taxed and where it goes after it leaves my wallet.
I know one of our state taxes on gas here supposedly goes to upkeep of the roads and sidewalks (Also, the revenue made from parking meters is supposedly going into that too), but you can ask Susan or Brian how good our roads are here :roll: . And it always seems that the state has to ask the federal govt for more money every year for upkeep of the roads...
Also, there is still a 40 cent tax on gas to pay for the new pseudo-mass-transit system and freeway we just built. They want to add a commuter rail system which they say they will have to add another 4o cents onto the price of gas to pay for it...the thing that just boggles my mind about it though, is the earnings that the UTA (Utah Transit Authority) rakes in, and how much they pay their administrators...right now, the cost of riding from one end of the valley to the other on TRAX (our light rail system) is about $3...the actual cost of shuffling each passnger, 50 cents or less...while the cheif administrator for the UTA makes in excess of half a million US$ per year...

[Will O'B]

The really sad part of the price of gas here -- there's a Marathon refinery within 30 miles. We pay more for gas than in the larger cities 150 miles away, where the gas is trucked ... from here.
Judy

Odd, isn't it? We have the same situation here. There are several refineries in this area, yet we have some of the highest gas prices in the US.

Fuel prices will raise everything. Independent truckers are already in trouble. This will put several I know completely out of business.

I was going to write the dollar amount that I thought someone told me big rig drivers pay to gas-up. It doesn't seem like I'm remembering correctly so I'm not going to say here. I don't know the size of the gas tanks on a semi-truck, or the price of diesel fuel per gallon. So I can't calculate it either.

Will O'Ban