Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 6.4
Tax on gasoline and diesel fuel in some industrialized countries
Gasoline tax
Diesel tax
Country
( per gallon)
( per gallon)
Netherlands
4.11
2.29
Germany
3.73
2.33
Belgium
3.56
2.54
United Kingdom
3.73
3.77
France
2.25
2.59
Italy
3.35
2.59
Japan
$2.34
$4.00
United States (federal plus state)
$0.39
$0.45
Note:
On November 23, 2010, 1 euro = $1.35
Source:
“EU Fuel Prices, 2010.” Available at http://energy.eu
cents, about 15 percent of the cost at the pump. This percentage varies
between 10 and 20 percent, depending mostly on the price of a barrel
of oil.
The cost of gasoline is composed of three parts, each of which is quite
variable. According to the Energy Information Administration, the rela-
tive costs in the United States in 2009 were price of crude oil, 61 percent;
refi ning, 11 percent; marketing and distribution, 10 percent; and federal
and state taxes, 18 percent. These percentages can vary greatly from
month to month as the price of a barrel of crude oil changes.
No new oil refi neries have been built in the United States since the
1970s, but the equivalent of one new refi nery has been added to
capacity each year for many years as a result of additions to existing
refi neries and other improvements that allow greater output from the
same facilities. As a result, refi ning capacity for crude oil has not been
stagnant.
World Oil Supplies
Some investigators believe that the situation in the United States is a
harbinger of world oil production. They believe that the peak of world
oil production has been reached, or is about to be. However, many
other researchers do not believe this.
6
They point out that while it is
true that the big fi rms are struggling to replace reserves, the reason
is that they no longer have access to the vast deposits of cheap and
easy oil that are left in Russia and the OPEC nations. As late as the
