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some_other_dave -

Originally Posted by some_other_dave

Interesting, this is opposite of what I thought I knew. That being, our gas prices are so low (relatively) because of the (relatively) low taxes on fuel. And that the prices in Europe were so high because they taxed fuel quite a lot.

Do you have data to support the $12/gallon price?

-soD

I don't know the source, but here is one claiming $11+ in 2008 :

Real Cost of a Gallon of Gas: $11.35 plus | Hybrid Cars

The national average for unleaded gas hit $3.28 a gallon this week, a 26 percent increase from last year at this time. Yet, the real cost of energy dependence amounts to more than $11.35 per gallon, according to Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.

In Dr. Luft’s opinion piece in today’s Miami Herald, he estimates that the United States is sending $460 billion per year overseas to finance the daily buying of 12 million barrels of imported oil. Luft cites calculations from the late Milton Copulos, an energy economist, who sets the grand total from the cost of oil-related defense expenditures, amortized cost of supply disruptions, and lost economic activity and tax revenues, at $825 billion per year.

CarloSW2