So, when I got to this site and saw these maps, I was quite surprised. Not only did it blow my conceptions out of the water, it appeared that not only do we pay less for gas, but our highest prices seem to match their lowest prices.
I began to question my math skills, which I haven't really needed to use much since 1st year physics. So I broke out the old pencil and paper and did some math, using the average U.S. and Canadian prices noted on the site:
Avg US Price: $2.860/gallon
Avg CDN Price: 106.461/L
Converting their price to CDN dollars:
$2.86/gallon * exchange rate = CDN$ 3.17194/gallon
Then converting to litres (1US gallon = 3.785L):
CDN$ 3.17194/ 3.785L
Simple division gives us:
CDN$ 0.838/ 1L
Well, isn't that interesting. On average, not only do we pay more for gas, we pay over 20 cents per liter more per gas. So, undaunted by the map maker who should probably have syncrhonized the colour ramps he used to symbolize the maps, I needed to find out why we paid more. The answer, it seems, is simple...and is very Canadian:
TAXES!
It turns out that (on average) 32% of our gas price is taxes. I figured it was probably around 15%, so that's a bit of a shock.
Source
So, that must be the culprit...until I saw that the average gas tax in the U.S. is ~40%.
Source
So, using those tax figures, we pay ~72.4 cents/L before tax, whereas in the states they pay ~50c/L before tax. FIFTY CENTS PER LITER?
So, I'm at a bit of a loss. The way I see it, we either pay more for the crude oil (which doesn't make sense since it's a commodity that's traded globally, so should have a constant price), more for refining, more for distribution, or we give more to the retailer. But I'm done looking up statistics for the time being, except for one last one:
In the UK, the prices work out to around 2.00/L, so it could be worse :)
4 comments:
Out of our gas prices, a certain percentage to go to fix Michigan roads. Now, I can't say this is happening over the country and considering I'm not there, Michigan is what concerns me at the moment. ANYWAY, Michigan roads SUCK!! Some smart politician was talking about making certain roads toll roads. Well, I will go out of my way, rather then pay a toll for a road that is suppose to be fixed with our taxed gas. Considering that the oil companies are making record breaking profits, whether you're Canadian or American, we're getting screwed royally. DO NOT BELIEVE everything you read on the news or hear, they LIE to us
Just like how our casino (and I suppose yours as well) was supposed to vastly improve our economy...it never seems to work that way.
I think, too, that most people realize that they're being screwed by the oil companies. I've been saying for years that with the hybrid cars, fuel cells, and the like, that the oil companies are seeing that their monopoly over the automotive industry is going to be over within 5 - 10 years, and so they're going to milk us for every cent we've got until the point when they go belly up. I'm mostly pointing out that it appears that us Canadians are getting screwed a little bit more than you guys :)
Yes, you're probably right
Whichever way you carve it, it's even worse in the UK. Currently running near 2$ Canadian equivalent (£0.97)!! About 64% of that ends up in our governments coffers.
Source
http://uk.theoildrum.com/story/2006/5/3/17236/14255
Post a Comment