The Wall Street Journal today (Weekend Edition) has an interesting editorial about gasoline prices. Their basic message: the best solution to $3 gas is $3 gas. (I agree - hands off, Congress).

What I found most interesting is a data table they show with gas prices in other countries listing both total gas price and the amount of gas taxes. Guess what? Setting aside taxes, the U.S. pays about the highest net price for gasoline!

Here are the figures (U.S. $ / U.S. gallon):

Total / Tax / Net Gas Price
Belgium $6.10 $3.77 $2.33
Britain $6.13 $4.03 $2.10
France $5.80 $3.65 $2.15
Germany $5.96 $3.82 $2.14
Italy $5.91 $3.57 $2.34
Netherlands $6.73 $4.12 $2.61
U.S. $2.98 $0.38 $2.60

I'm not whinning about paying "only" $3 per gallon, I'm just a bit surprised that the natural price of gasoline is 50 cents higher in the U.S than it is in Great Britain, for example.

I also found some other interesting items this week - related to our behavior in the face of much higher gas prices.

1) the percentage of 8-cylinder vehicle sales is the U.S. in Q1 2006 is the same as it was last summer (pre-Katrina) - at about 25% of all sales.

2) total gasoline sales in the U.S. in 2005 were level with 2004 - after growing 2% per year since 2000. And Q1 2006 gasoline sales are down 1% compared to Q1 2005.

So, I guess this says that we are still buying the same kinds of cars, but are driving them a bit less.

 

Could the price difference be a result of the gasoline micro-brews on the left and right coasts as well as the politicians sop to the Corn Belt and ADM with this year's imposition of the ethanol requirement?

 

Now $3 doesn't look that bad compared to those numbers

 

I must say that one of the biggest benefits for buying my 530 was the MPG. There are few cars that can come close with the same performance.

 

Gas costs ? 0,08 / litre in Iran.

That's about 40 cents for a US Gallon.