I have been researching global fuel prices, and what i have hard time understanding is, why are we paying 2-3x more(Fuel data: https://www.usgasprice.com/)?

I can understand some percentages, since US produces a lot of gas, but how come we have to pay 200% more?


39 comments

  2. Dont know about your country but in Portugal its because on the price of fuel you pay a tax, Over another tax, Over another tax, over another tax…..

  3. For some additional context, the US federal tax on gasoline is $0.049 per liter. States have their own taxes, the highest is California with an additional $0.18 per liter. So, excise taxes on gasoline in the US are no higher than $0.23 per liter, and most often less.

  4. We subsidize our oil and gas industry heavily and our gas taxes are low. Before 9/11 gas here in Ohio was under 1 USD per gallon (3.8L). Think about that.

  6. Also note that fuel is different quality on the US than is Europe.
    Gas stations in the United States generally offer three octane grades: regular (usually 87 octane), mid-grade (usually 89 octane), and premium (usually 91 or 93 gas). EU ratings are 95/98, which are equivalent to US ratings of 91/93. So, EU 95 octane = US 91 octane and EU 98 octane = US 93 octane. Top performance with EU 98 octane = 93 US octane.

  7. Because in Italy we still pay the following taxes on top of the fuel cost:
    * Financing of the Ethiopian War of 1935-1936.
    * Financing of the Suez crisis of 1956.
    * Reconstruction after the Vajont disaster of 1963.
    * Reconstruction after the flood of Florence in 1966.
    * For reconstruction after the 1968 Belice earthquake.
    * Reconstruction after the 1976 Friuli earthquake.
    * Reconstruction after the 1980 Irpinia earthquake.
    * financing of the mission to Bosnia in 1996.
    * Renewal of the 2004 contract of the autoferrotramvieri.
    * Purchase of environmentally friendly buses in 2005.
    * To cope with the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake.
    * Funding for culture in 2011.
    * To cope with the arrival of immigrants after the Libyan crisis of 2011.
    * To cope with the flood that hit Liguria and Tuscany in 2011.
    * Reconstruction after the earthquake in Emilia in 2012.
    * For the “Save Italy” decree of 2011.

  8. Basically because the government needs to tax people. It’s to create room so it’s possible for the governments to spend money domestically.

    It’s a tax on consume, so, it’s a good tax in the respect it’s hard to dodge. And it’s a fine way to tell people to avoid gas-thirsty cars, as gas-thirsty is bad for the environment.

    Have you seen what kind of cars the Americant’s are driving around in?

  9. It has nothing to with production and everything to do with taxes.

    Let me break down to you how the gasoline price works in Greece (and I assume something like that in the rest of Europe)

    At the refinery, 95oct gasoline costs ~0.60€/L and diesel ~0.80€/L. Thats the price the gas station buys (which it already covers the cost of extraction, refining + oil company profit…). Now lets add 0.10 €/L of gas station profit (they make about that much). So, they could sell you at 0.70 €/L gasoline and 0.90 €/L diesel PRE TAXES and still make their regular profit.

    Not comes the government and says, I levy a fuel tax of 0.7€/L for gasoline and 0.43€/L for diesel.

    So aftel fuel tax the price at the pump is like this:
    Gasoline: ~0.70 (fuel cost + everyones profit) + 0.70 (fuel tax) = ~1.40 €/L
    Diesel: ~0.80 (fuel cost + everyones profit) + 0.43 (fuel tax) = ~1.23 €/L

    But there is 1 more that tha is added on top. VAT. Which in Greece its 24%

    So final pump price
    Gasoline: ~1.40 *1.24 = ~1.75 €/L
    Diesel: ~1.23 * 1.24 = ~1.55 €/L.

    Which prices are surprisingly close to what is at the pumps today. Also notice that there is a tax on top of the tax (VAT on top of the fuel tax). Yeah… In gasoline, over half of the cost is taxes. In diesel its a bit better it just under half.

    Now compare to the US
    Source here -> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States?form=MG0AV3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States?form=MG0AV3)
    The most expensive state (California) has a gasoline fuel tax of 0.17 $/L + 2.25% VAT and a diesel fuel tax of 0.24 $/L + 9.25 % VAT. Even the most expensive fuel in the US had laughably low taxes compared to the cheaper place in Europe. Also note VAT (or sales tax as they call it there) is everywhere <10%, whereas in Europe its always in the 20-25% range.

  10. It’s all about taxes. Americans don’t have VAT an their excise is low.

    In Europe, about half of the fuel cost is tax.

    It’s that simple.

  12. Here in Ukraine we have gasoline (1 liter) for 1.39 $, while US has it for 1.00 $. Yes, it’s more expensive, but not 2-3x difference. And being fair, we have the war with Russia ongoing, so the logistics is more complicated.

    [https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=Ukraine&city1=New+York%2C+NY&city2=Kiev+%28Kyiv%29&tracking=getDispatchComparison](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=Ukraine&city1=New+York%2C+NY&city2=Kiev+%28Kyiv%29&tracking=getDispatchComparison)

  13. Because Europe has consumption taxes on stuff like automobile gas, tobacco products, alcohol, luxury items… that’s the difference between socialized capitalism and walk over bodies libertarian capitalism

  14. Taxes are the primary answer.

    2nd answer is their refineries are much more effective than ours and designed to use a dirtier crude oil. They actually import most of their crude and export most of their higher quality crude to our refineries.

  15. How many countries that produce oil did you invaded to bring them Freedom™ in exchange of oil? That’s why.

  16. “researching”

    Because we TAX FUEL. If you have to choose what you should tax, gas is quite reasonable ( because of many reasons, externalities, low elasticity of demand etc.

    Here is how it looks (share of each tax fees etc) in Poland.

    [https://www.e-petrol.pl/notowania/pomocne-informacje/podzial-skladnikow-cen-paliw](https://www.e-petrol.pl/notowania/pomocne-informacje/podzial-skladnikow-cen-paliw)

    You can drive as cheep as in USA – you may use LPG (AUYOGAS) instead of gas / diesel, but for some reason it’s only popular in Poland and Italy, and even here it’s rather small share of the market.

  17. Because the governments in Europe want you to drive less, so they add a lot of tax on fuel. Also the goal is to eventually get rid of all cars with combustion engines.

    So in short; In the USA the people in charge wants you to drive more. In the EU the people in charge wants you to drive less.

  18. You guys tax the shit out of gasoline and diesel.

    In the US we use something called Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, rules and the automakers get some sort of rating by taking the fuel economy of each passenger vehicle and light truck model * for sale in the US, adding it up, and dividing it by the number of models. If they meet the goal the federal government makes they don’t have to pay penalties. There’s more weirdness to it because of how vehicles are classified (full-size sedan vs compact, crossovers vs sedans, etc) that also matters but that’s the gist of it.

    That asterisk is a big deal, though, because certain models are exempt from being included in that average. You guessed it: “light trucks” like the stereotypical American full-sized pickup trucks and SUVs have lower fuel economy requirements. As a result more automakers just make the bulk of their vehicles fall under that category instead of engineering them to use less fuel.

    The overall result is that we can’t jack fuel prices up because those vehicles might literally become too expensive to drive for the people who didn’t think ahead when they bought them.

  19. For a number of reasons, one being the financing of our universal healthcare and social programs. It’s being used to slowly nudge the Europeans more towards zero-emission vehicles, etc etc.

  20. Its like 60% in taxes, how do you expect a politician survive without his multiple yacths and mercedes??

  21. Because Europa does not have oil. Meaning we import it. Meaning it wrecks havoc on our commercial balance. Meaning governments would really rather you found alternatives, and taxing it highly is one big incentive towards it

  22. Because our cities don’t look like this

    https://www.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/s/OVfS9x8xWi

    Taxing gasoline is one of the best things to tax. Because it isn’t taxed in the US, everything is built for cars and therefore americans on average drive twice as many miles every year.

    Meaning they spend almost the same money on fuel but sit twice as long in cars, and have to fly to europe to experience city centers that are nice to spend time in.

  23. Pretty much their entire workforce is dependent vehicles for going to work or anywhere at all and it would be political suicide for any party to dramatically increase their incredibly petrol low taxes.

  24. Gasoline is really cheap but most of the cost of it is taxes and it happens the US doesn’t tax it as much.

  25. In Europe 50-70 cents is the actual price of gasoline (it’s pretty much the same globally) everything on top of that is taxes, fuel tax, mineral oil tax, lead tax, CO2 tax, VAT. It all adds up to an effective tax of 200-400%. It’s ridiculous. So imagine the budget deficit once we actually accomplish what they say these tax are here for (ie move away from fossil fuels). 

  26. In France, it’s about 3x. Half of fuel price is taxes, and we import almost all of our fuel because, well, no petrol here.

  27. We should be moving out of fossil fuel. The question is why aren’t we investing more in public transports infrastructure.

  28. I’m currently in the US and can tell you that everything else costs double. It’s just fuel and Levi‘s jeans that cost less, so no need to complain. Imagine paying €12 for 10 eggs or €2,000 for an ambulance.

  29. Because the EU sanctioned Russia and now Russia needs to sell the oil products to India and Turkey first before they are sold on the European market for 2.5x the normal price, taxes are a percentage of the market price so when they willingly double your oil/gas prices they also double their tax income.

    The governments and politicians make more money when you pay more..

    And if you think this is crazy… You haven’t heard half of it yet..

  30. As numerous posts say, the higher pump price is because of high taxation. This is due to fuel being easy and major way to get money to government budget as everyone needs it. Taxation is high also because EU countries want to discourage private use of cars for environmental reasons. Economic activity would be higher if fuel was cheaper, but in EU environment wins over economy.

  31. Because we produce basically no oil ourselves, so everything has to be imported.

    And of course they upcharge us since oil producing countries are basically a cartel, so they can’t really undercut anyone else. And we have no choice but to pay since we need oil.

    But yeah, investing in green energy is totally stupid and woke nonsense.

  32. In 2012 Obama basically shut down a reporter by simply asking something along the lines of “Let me get this straight, you think the President of the United States wants oil prices to go up?”.

    This entire situation speaks volumes as to the relationship between American life and oil prices.

  33. Subsediced since all their logistics are dependant on it. Ever been to the US or seen what it looks like there? Barely any buses or trains, you take the car everywhere and its a co dependant system. Workers gotta afford go to work etc.

  34. Because taxes. EU doesn’t pump much oil at all, we have to import basically all of it. So we tax it heavily so you wouldn’t use so damn much of it.

  35. Aside from lesser taxes, petroleum companies in the US receive rather large subsidies. So the cost is lower at the pump, but it’s being paid by tax payers in the long run.

  36. Did you compare the price based on octane#?

    Because I recently realized I had always compared 87 octane (what’s commonly used where I live in the US) to 95 octane (what’s commonly used where my parents are in EU. Once you compare the 95 octane price, the difference is a whole lot smaller.

  37. Gas taxes.

    Americans pay around (depending on state) 40-60 cents per freedom unit in taxes.

    Europeans pay around $3 per freedom unit.

    On top of that, the raw product is cheaper in the US. West Texas crude always runs a bit under Brent Crude, and delivery within the US is much more straightforward than delivery within Europe.

  38. 3 Reasons mostly.

    1- US subsidizes its gas/oil industry and then has low tax on the consumer, since consumer taxes are already being used to subsidize the industry.
    2- US is the major producer of fuel and Europe is unlucky and barely has any oil in comparison
    3- Europe taxes a lot more, depending on the nation, I’d say anywhere from 25% to 60%, possibly more in a couple countries.

  39. The US does whatever it can to keep Gas lower than other nations since it hasn’t invested in its infrastructure and alternate transportation methods other than the miserable potholed roads for gas guzzling cars!

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