Interesting People mailing list archives
more on A question for non USA IPers5 bucks a gallon for gas?
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 04:58:48 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: John Levine <johnl () iecc com> Date: August 17, 2005 10:40:35 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] A question for non USA IPers5 bucks a gallon for gas? you write:
Why the differnce
Taxes. A gallon of gas in Europe is the same as a gallon of gas in the US, I don't see any great difference in the delivery system, but their tax rates are a lot higher. The US traditionally has a myopic policy of low gas prices, which makes us much more vulnerable to price swings, since a $1 increase to $2 gas is a 50% increase, while to $5 gas it's only a 20% increase. If we'd increased the gas tax by 50 cents or a dollar a gallon back in 1990, the price at the pump now would be about the same, but those 50 cents or $1/gal would be going toward our budget deficit rather than to unstable governments on the other side of the world. By the way, anyone who thinks that the US can produce its way back to lower gas prices disagrees with a lot of geologists. Under the most optimistic assumptions, there isn't enough recoverable oil left in the US to affect overall supply other than at the margins, and it takes years to bring a new field online. It does seem true that new refineries would fix some bottlenecks, but the basic problem is that we and now the Chinese are buying a whole lot of oil, and producers have no reason to sell it cheaply. R's, John ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- more on A question for non USA IPers5 bucks a gallon for gas? David Farber (Aug 18)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- more on A question for non USA IPers5 bucks a gallon for gas? David Farber (Aug 18)