U.S. gas: So cheap it hurts

The gas prices listed in the charts shown at the beginning of this thread have been changed per the following statement at the end of the article:

Correction: Due to data errors, previous versions of the charts in this story were incorrect. The charts have been updated.

 

Argee 100%!!!

 

How about a one dollar a gallon levy on petrol and all of that money should be spent on developing and subsidising fuel efficient cars and public transport. A rebate could be available to people who need a truck for business like plumbers etc. And if someone wrongfully claims the rebate they lose their truck.

 

BTW I paid a visit to that "Don't take my truck" site.

What A Load Of Horse S***

Have you ever been to California, or any other state with CA emissions? Ever seen a ban on pickups or SUV's there? Seems almost every other vehicle there is a pickup or suv

I fully support mandatory annual I/M programs for LD vehicles, I wish we had one here in Manitoba, in addition to the one for HD vehicles.

There already is a surprise inspection program here for heavy trucks, and scary enough, 25% have enough problems to be declared unroadworthy ON THE SPOT. That's with mandatory annual inspections.

There are enough dumba** rednecks out there who drive around on bald tires, or cut off their catalytic converter, to deserve to lose their vehicle during an annual I/M

I'm getting pretty steamed playing by the rules when other dumba**es out there don't or refuse to do so. That spoils it for all of us. So does whining about CAFE and emissions standards

 

We need to think and act long-term by substantial investment in walking & bicycle routes, electric & high speed rail, renewable sustainable distributed energy (solar, wind, hydro, geothermal) and reconstructing cities on a human level (vs. vehicles). We need robust conservation and energy efficiency standards for homes, businesses, schools & churches.

Peak oil should not catch most of us "by surprise." Rocky Mountain Institute's Hypercar and Toyota's PHEVs provide a robust intermediate step toward sustainability.

 

Agreed. Good points

 

The one thing that every one forgets is the US is not laid out like some foreign countries. We are all spread out with Large Malls and work usually isn't around the corner. In Japan most people can bike to work and the shopping area. Also lets not lose track of the fact that oil compainies have record breaking profits, ie 34billion with the government giving the oil companies 180 million, yours and my taxes to a company should be using some of there profit to develope new sources.:rant::rant::rant:

 

I'm sorry, but you built your own cities, nobody obliged you to build all so far apart. :focus:

 

111. United States $3.45

That is a real deal until you figure in the “WAR Tax†that current and future generations will be stuck with.

:violin:

 

Is subsidizing it good? I'd be OK with NO tax...and no subsidy. We'd be over $10/gallon then.

 

Yup. All made possible with cheap gas. Ain't it grand?

Expensive gasoline won't fix all our problems, but cheap gas sure got us into lots of them.

 

Bingo. Gas and vehicle taxes in the US cover a little over half the cost of building and maintaining the roads. This table shows everything scaled to be a percent of total road spending:

Highway Statistics 2004 - FUNDING FOR HIGHWAYS AND DISPOSITION OF HIGHWAY-USER REVENUES, ALL UNITS OF GOVERNMENT, 2004 - Table HF-10

Percentage of total highway spending is the right-hand column, fuel and other vehicle taxes are about a third of the way down.

If we merely wanted to have gas and vehicle taxes cover the cost of the roads, we'd have to double them, more or less.

As for using gas tax revenues for non-highway purposes, that is summarized at the top of the table. But note that the the net outflows (gas tax used for non-highway purposes) is far smaller than the inflows (non-gas-tax revenues used to build and maintain highways).

The bottom line is still that gas and vehicle taxes don't even come close to covering the cost of the roads.