Pain at the pump
Question: How do our gas prices compare to other countries?
Answer: On the U.S. Energy Administration Web page you will find comparisons of U.S. retail gasoline prices to those for foreign countries.
For example, you can find the world crude oil prices (which affect retail gas prices) for the U.S. on 3/14/2008 equaling $99.76 dollars per barrel and the total world average on that day at $102.56 dollars per barrel.
On 3/17/2008 the average regular grade retail price of gasoline per gallon in the U.S. (including all taxes) was $3.284. The average price of premium grade gas including all taxes on that day was $3.50 a gallon.
And, on 3/17/2008 in the Netherlands*, the average premium grade retail price of gasoline per gallon (U.S. Dollars per Gallon, including taxes) was $9.14; Italy $8.26; Germany $8.53; France $8.16; United Kingdom $8.07 and Belgium $8.56.
Americans can complain about our pain at the gas pump, but foreign counties are suffering much higher gasoline costs than the prices we pay here in the United States.
*Note: Information for March 17 is the most current data available for foreign gasoline markets.
Linda Niemi
Filed under: Uncategorized
My mother was a public school librarian. I earned a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Kentucky. The Herald-Leader hired me as a news assistant 25 years ago; soon after, I moved to the news research department, where I’ve been ever since. We used to clip newspapers. Now, almost all of our research is online. We've come a long way.
THANK YOU.
I lived in France for 13 years. One year I had a long commute to work (no viable public transportation was available for it), and I was paying about 200€ (currently almost $310) per month for gas. That was one-seventh of my salary at the time.
When fellow Americans complain about the price of gas, I seethe a little, yep.
I wonder how much taxes were included in foreign gas prices.