Posted on 05/01/2006 8:44:05 AM PDT by kellynla
While Americans complain about $3-per-gallon gas, drivers in Britain and much of continental Europe wish they had it so good, according to a story in the Washington Post.
The average gasoline price in Britain has risen 19 percent since January 2005 to a national average of $6.48 a gallon. And many stations are charging well above that, with at least one in London's chic Chelsea neighborhood charging nearly $8 a gallon last weekend.
What's more, drivers in 11 European countries are now paying an average of more than $6 a gallon for gasoline, according to Britain's AA Motoring Trust. The disparity between European and American gasoline prices is accounted for by high taxes charged in Europe, where governments have long used gasoline taxes as an important source of revenue and as a policy tool to drive down oil consumption and reduce pollution.
Taxes account for about 66 percent of the pump price in Britain. Of the current average price per gallon of $6.48, about $4.27 goes to the government, while U.S. drivers pay an average of about 46 cents per gallon in combined state, federal and local taxes, according to the Tax Foundation, an independent organization in Washington.
I wish I was a Vespa saleman in Europe!!! :-)
Well, darned, if I don't feel grateful to only have spent $60 to fill up my tank over the weekend!
Socialism doesn't work.
In other words, the REAL price is about $2.21.
I'm sure the MSM will be all over this...
Taxes account for about 66 percent of the pump price in Britain.
Britian is learning that being the dedicated dumping ground for millions of welfare sucking 3rd world "refugees" so the liberals in that country can boast "we lead the world in human rights" has a high cost.
All thse welfare benefits has to come from somewhere.
Bummer but 70% of Englands fuel pricing are taxes to fund its government. Based on this fee, the government of England must be gouging the citizens in England.
And as anyone who has been to London or Paris recently can tell you...it ain't working.
England changed their fuel excise taxing policy a few years back. Not only did they index it to fuel prices so that taxes go up as fuel prices go up, but they put an accelerator on it so that taxes go up faster than the price of fuel. They thought that this would be a quiet tax source that would slowly grow as fuel prices went up. In the hectic and quite volatile oil market we're now in this accelerator is quite a kick in the head for the private and commercial vehicle operators there. The lorry operators staged a shutdown of several major highways the last time the prices spiked.
In the USA our excise taxes stay flat as the price of gasoline flucuates.
Well if the government wants to do something about gas prices, they could always subsidize oil at 45 dollars per barrel for three months.
We bring in 3 million barrels a day so it would be 135 million dollars per day for 90 days. So 4.5 billion a month for 3 months. Which is about the size of Exxon/Mobils profit.
By eliminating The oil companies perks, since they cannot drill or build refineries and are just swimming in cash, we use that money to fund the project.
Gas prices goes down, the oil companies still make a huge profit and no one really gets hurt. In addition, the drop in gas prices due to this would encourage families to travel more this summer, spending money that they would otherwise save to buy expensive gas.
"In other words, the REAL price is about $2.21."
That fact always gets ignored and worth repeating:
Yo, Dems, it is the taxes "STUPID", that make European gasoline costs HIGHER than USA.
Dems want to see the same costs as in Europe so they have more of OUR money to spend on give away programs.
See clip below:
"In addition, U.S. consumers pay less for a gallon of gasoline than consumers in many other industrialized nations, in large part because the United States imposes much lower taxes on gasoline than these other countries. "
http://www.gao.gov/htext/d05675t.html
From GAO report number GAO-05-675T entitled 'Energy Markets: Understanding Current Gasoline Prices and Potential Future Trends' released on May 10, 2005.
In the USA our excise taxes stay flat as the price of gasoline flucuates.
-----
Britain is an excellent example of socialist taxation and government control of your life. All we need to do is put a Marxist liberal in the Oval Office and we will have it too -- and tragically, we have a Repub party that is working hard to make that happen...
and the Saudi's are filling up at 65 cents a gallon.
Enough said.
Who care what gas costs in England or anywhere else? It's $0.35 a gallon in Venezuela. England and the Europeans use the exhorbitant gas taxes to fund their failed socialist experiments. Let them.
Until the Kennedys get involved, and then "do something" for he "little people" so they can fight against the "big bad oil companies".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.