Not a lot of fat people in that picture or the Netherlands...... Take it up to $5 a gallon, let's get America skinny.
Sorry about the delay in this reply - you are (surprise) on my ignore list. Disclaimer: These cover more than just automobile gas. 1. Immediate Expensing of Exploration and Development Costs – $200 million/year Oil, gas, and coal producers can immediately expense (write off) most or all of their development costs. Other businesses must deduct these expenses over a longer period of time. 2. Percentage Depletion Allowance for Oil and Gas – $600 million/year Independent oil and gas companies can deduct 15 percent of their sales revenue using the special percentage depletion allowance – instead of the standard cost depreciation – regardless of the actual loss in value over time. 3. Requiring Full Coal Firm Support for the Black Lung Fund – $350 million/year Designed to internalize the health-related costs of coal mining, this fund requires government support to pay for work-related disabilities of coal miners. 4. Intangible Drilling Costs – $500 million/year Integrated oil and gas companies can immediately deduct 70 percent of "intangible" drilling costs. Most other businesses deduct such expenses over time and therefore receive less of a tax benefit. 5. Passive Loss for Oil and Gas – $100 million/year This tax shelter for investors in oil and gas allows certain owners to offset "passive losses" against income to pay lower taxes. 6. Non-Conventional Fuel Production Credit – $1.3 billion/year This tax credit for certain types of fuel extracted from "non-conventional" sources was intended to provide incentives for petroleum alternatives, but most of the credit has gone for oil and gas production. 7. Tax Breaks for Enhanced Oil Recovery – $100 million/year Expensing (writing off) tertiary injectant costs and the tax credit for enhanced oil recovery encourage extraction of difficult to reach and expensive oil deposit remnants. 8. Clean Coal Technology Program – $250 million/ year This program helps finance private companies to develop cleaner burning coal technologies by providing up to 50 percent in federal matching funds. 9. Coal R&D – $100 million/year The Department of Energy supports research in technology programs for producing, refining, and burning coal products. 10. Other Fossil Energy R&D – $100 million/year The federal government provides subsidies for oil and natural gas research and development. 11. Multilateral Development Bank Loans for Fossil Fuel – $80 million/year The U.S. federal government supports several multilateral development banks, which provide loans for fossil fuel development in other countries. 12. Export Import Bank Guarantees for Fossil Fuel – $300 million/year The Export Import Bank provides federal loan guarantees for investments in unstable countries. A portion of these loans are used for fossil fuel development. 13. Capital Gains Treatment of Royalties on Coal – $15 million/year Individual owners (as opposed to corporations) who lease out their coal mining rights are able to pay capital gains taxes on these royalties, rather than the higher top individual income tax rate. 14. Income Tax Exemption for Publicly Owned Utilities – $200 million/year Publicly owned utilities and cooperatives are not subject to federal income tax on their profits or retained earnings. Some of these utilities use fossil fuels. 15. Rural Utilities Service Loans – $900 million/year The federal government provides low-interest loans to rural-electrification cooperatives. These cooperatives have invested heavily in energy plants using fossil fuels. 16. Tax Exemption for Publicly Owned Utility Bonds – $550 million/year Publicly owned utilities (POUs) can issue tax-exempt bonds. A significant portion of POUs have invested in energy sources using fossil fuels.
What the hell, I'm feeling perky this morning. http://www.satyamag.com/july95/goff.html -Mark M. Glickman, Beyond Gas Taxes: Linking Driving Fees to Externalities (Oakland, CA: Redefining Progress, March 2001), p.1; number of taxpayers from Internal Revenue Service, "Number of Returns Filed, by Type of Return and State, Fiscal Year 2000," in 2000 IRS Data Book (Washington, DC: September 2001). http://www.swt.org/robert/writ/subcol.htm Sorry about the forgotten link: http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/fuelsubfact.htm EDIT3: I really don't think that this is necessarily a bad thing - but I'd rather we had good public transportation. If I could take a (fast) train rather than a car when I drive to Louisiana it would rock. And I don't really care what the price of gas is - but there is a pretty darn good reason why gas elsewhere in the world is around 5-6 bucks a gallon.
3 Cars total 1 All around car 1 Older "Economy" car for long trips on the weekends 1 Sports car I fill them up all at different times because I drive them all at different times durring the year, but on average I'm getting gas every 12 days or so in at least one of the cars.. If I drove the Sports car everyday I'd be filling up more than once every week..
How interesting that the political slant of the flash video has been ignored by respondents up to this point....
I hate paying the high prices, but its a necessary evil...I only work about 2 miles from home, but my g/f lives about 15 away and then we do crap...I have a rental now as my cars in the shop and its a Ford F150 and I've droped #60 bucks in less than a week, with tank being 3/4 filled... Can I afford it, yeah, but it sucks paying it...
Gas prices too high? Try Europe. $7 a gallon? That's what drivers in Amsterdam pay. But Europeans have long adapted to high prices. By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor PARIS – When Guy Colombier pulls his economy car up to a Paris pump, he allows himself just 15 Euros ($18) worth of gas - barely enough for three gallons. Since prices started rising rapidly earlier this year, says Mr. Colombier, a printing press worker, "I drive a lot more slowly ... and I'm looking for a place to live closer to where I work." Colombier's pain is shared by drivers all over Europe, where fuel prices are the highest in the world: a gallon of gas in Amsterdam now costs $7.13, compared with just $2.61 in America. The contrast in prices and environmental policies - and the dramatically different behaviors they inspire - signals a widening transatlantic energy gap. And it raises the question: Does Europe offer America a glimpse of its future? Indeed, while Europeans have learned to cope with expensive fuel (mostly due to taxes), there's scant evidence yet that US drivers are adopting their conservation tactics. "Societies adjust over decades to higher fuel prices," says Jos Dings, head of Transport and Energy, a coalition of European environmental NGOs. "They find many mechanisms." Chief among them, say experts, is the habit of driving smaller and more fuel-efficient cars. While the average light duty vehicle on US highways gets 21.6 miles per gallon (m.p.g.), according to a study by the Paris based International Energy Agency (IEA), in Paris, its European counterpart manages 32.1 m.p.g. "European consumers are very sensitive to fuel economy and sophisticated about engine options," says Lew Fulton, a transport analyst with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). "European car magazines are full of comparisons of fuel costs over the life of a vehicle." Europe's cars: 40 percent are diesel That approach has given a special boost to diesel cars, which make up more than 40 percent of European car sales, compared with just 4 percent in the US. Just ahead of Colombier in the line at the gas station Thursday was Nicole Marie, a high school teacher, who was using her husband's diesel Audi, rather than her own gasoline-powered car, to take her daughter to Normandy for a final week of vacation by the sea. "I only use my car in town," she says. "We bought a diesel car deliberately because it is cheaper to run." That is partly because the French government encourages the use of more- efficient diesel fuel by taxing it less heavily. Only in four European countries is diesel more expensive than gasoline, the way it is in America. But efficiency alone does not explain the huge disparity between fuel-use figures on either side of the Atlantic: European per capita consumption of gas and diesel stood at 286 liters a year in 2001, compared to 1,624 in the US, according to IEA figures. The nature of cities plays a role, too. "America has built its entire society around the car, which enabled suburbs," points out Mr. Dings. "European cities have denser centers where cars are often not practical." In Paris, for example, about half the trips people make are by foot, by bicycle, or on public transport, says UNEP's Mr. Fulton. In America, that figure is more like 20 percent. Impact of fuel tax "The single most effective measure" that has brought down motorists' fuel use in Europe, however, is taxation, says Dings. On average, 60 percent of the price European drivers pay at the pump goes to their governments in taxes. In Britain, the government takes 75 percent, and raises taxes by 5 percent above inflation every year (though it has forgone this year's rise in view of rocketing oil prices, and the French government has promised tax rebates this year to taxi drivers, truckers, fishermen, and others who depend heavily on gasoline.) On August 8, for example, the price of gas in the US, without taxes, would be $2.17, instead of $2.56; in Britain, it would be $1.97, instead of $6.06. "There is really good evidence that higher prices reduce traffic," says Stephen Glaister, a professor of transportation at London's Imperial College. "If fuel prices go up 10 percent ... fuel consumed goes down by about 7 percent, as people start to use fuel more efficiently, not accelerating so aggressively and switching to more fuel-efficient cars. It does change people's behavior." The US authorities, however, "are unwilling to use resource price as part of their strategy" to conserve oil, says Lee Schipper, head of transportation research at the Washington-based World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank. "The biggest hole in our policy today is fuel taxation," he adds. "Tax increases are something Americans should do but don't know how to do, and I wonder if they will ever be able to. "Consumers want muscle cars, manufacturers say they make what the consumer wants, and the government panders to both constituencies," Mr. Schipper continues. "It's a vicious cycle." Europeans may drive smaller cars, but there are few signs that the current record gas prices are making them drive less. Germans who live close to the Czech Republic can drive across the border to take advantage of the lowest prices in Europe, but most people "cannot react to [the prices] because they still need to drive a lot," says Jürgen Albrecht, an official with Germany's largest auto club, the ADAC. "I can't say I'm not going to drive the 50 kilometers [31 miles] to work because of the high gas prices. It doesn't work that way." "Most people have no alternative, particularly those who live in rural areas," says Paul Hodgson of the RAC, the British motoring association. "A lot of motorists tell us that if there was a decent and affordable public transport system they would use that ... but we are still a long way from having an alternative." Prices vary widely across Europe. The Greeks, for example, are getting off comparatively lightly, with just $4.32 a gallon. But they're not exactly celebrating. On the Greek isles, where almost everything comes in by boat, residents are hit even harder by rising fuel prices. "Whatever you do, it all comes back to gasoline," huffs Dimitra Vogiatzi, who sells produce on the far-flung island of Patmos, as she slams closed her massive ledger. Ms. Vogiatzi has been obliged to raise her prices, and more and more of her customers are buying on credit, she complains. "Imagine if we need a doctor, or someone has to have a baby," she adds. "All the boat fares, coming and going - isn't that gasoline?" Though shipping costs in the Aegean may remain high, European Union regulations are forcing vehicle manufacturers to make their products even more efficient than they already are. Though their primary motivation is to reduce CO2 emissions, in line with targets set by the Kyoto Protocol, bio-fuel and hybrid cars are still so rare that increased fuel efficiency is the fastest route to lower emissions, says Dolf Gielen, an expert at the IEA. CO2 emissions from new European cars fell by 12 percent from 1995 to 2003, according to Mr. Gielen, and manufacturers have voluntarily pledged to reduce them by a further 14 per cent by 2008, he adds. European governments are proposing tax breaks to encourage motorists to take advantage of these possibilities. Belgian drivers who buy a low-emissions vehicle get a 15 percent price rebate; Spain cuts $865 from the cost of registering a car if it replaces a car using leaded gas more than 10 years old; Hungary waives registration tax for hybrid cars. End of the road for SUVs? Though US vehicles' fuel efficiency has improved greatly over the past 30 years, overall consumption has risen in the past decade because consumers and manufacturers have used the leeway offered by the new technology to buy and build bigger and more powerful vehicles, experts say. Environmentalists wonder whether the current price spike in gas prices might lead to a lasting change in US behavior. "The exciting thing now is that we are almost at the real high point of prices in 1981," says Mr. Schipper. "We'll see if American manufacturers, authorities, and drivers realize that these prices may now be locked in." "Sales of big SUVs have been dropping in the last few months," points out Fulton. "We are now at the point where people believe this is real and they are reacting. The longer it goes on, the more they will react." http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0826/p01s03-woeu.html
I live 3 miles from work so a tank of gas in my truck lasts for 2 weeks. Unfortunately, it costs 60 bucks to fill.
Oh....and my wife probably has about a $300 gas bill every month. I'm waiting for that month when combined, we hit that magical thousand dollar mark.
Neither.....we both do quite a bit of traveling though. She has clients all over Houston, and I drive all over Texas.
Sounds about the same as me. Well, except for the fact that I have a Corolla and filling up only costs about $25...
