Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Gas Prices

[Blogspot seems to have lost this post, so I'm reposting]

The BBC asks Why are Americans so angry about petrol prices? "Rising petrol prices in the US are expected to be one of the key issues in the 2012 presidential election. But Americans still pay half of what Europeans fork out on the forecourt. So why is it such a big deal?"

"Americans use their cars more, so the pain is greater. They have, on average, a longer daily commute than all Europeans, except Hungarians and Romanians. Public transport is generally poor so many Americans have no alternative but to drive."

Of course a huge factor in the price of gas is the price of crude oil. "It's increased in price by about $1.20 a gallon since August, he says, driven by increased global demand, especially in China and India, where more and more people are driving cars." But then there's this chart, since our gas taxes are so low, the price of crude has a bigger influence on our gas prices than in other places:

NewImage

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