The actual cost of gasoline

[Lukon]

An interesting perspective: http://www.thetinylife.com/the-true-cost-of-gas/

I'm very curious what the readers here think about this.

[ptwonline]

No one is replying? I guess the prospect of having to pay the true cost of gasoline frightened them off.

Most of the cost of gas is not paid at the pump. It's paid out of health care dollars from pollution-related illness, lost productivity, and pollution cleanup. It's one of the reasons why something like a carbon tax was created in the first place: to make the producers and users of fossil fuels pay more of the actual price instead of shifting the burden onto general society. People will argue that it makes things more expensive. In a micro sense, yes it does. However in a macro sense you are paying for it one way or another whether through higher health insurance or through tax dollars. Wouldn't it make more sense--and be more fair--if the people responsible for causing those costs picked up more of the bill as well?

[Lukon]

I find it thoroughly inspiring that someone else can look at the macro sense and stand up for it. Most people are bright enough to understand but it's the action that matters.

Thank you for your reply

[Baene]

It doesnt matter how much gas costs till the oil companies release their transmatics or w.e uses the oil in the cars that can get 100miles to the gallon

[NomadicGod]

We are species of consumption.

[Sunseeker]

1: Comparison to EU pricing if flawed. EU gas costs more because A: demand is lower, and the countries selling it to Europe like to extract lots of money from them(I'm looking at you Russia). B: more regulation and taxes in general. It's not simply to pay for health costs or cleanup costs, but for a whole variety of social services the government provides to their citizens.

2: From saudi arabia, where we only get 12% of our gas. This is clearly not representative of all of our gas.

3: they give no specifics on how much "gas is evaporating" when you connect these things, and there are a great deal of regulations on that exact subject, how much is lost really depends greatly on how sealed the station makes it's connections. gas doesn't magically evaporate as soon as it hits air, in cool temperatures, gas will evaporate slower as opposed to during hot temperatures.
Gas evaporating straight from your engine? Do they even KNOW how engines work? Your engine has to be in serious trouble for signifcant gas loss to occur straight from your engine.

Wait wait, they come up with 19lbs of greenhouse gas pollution? 19lbs of ANYTHING as a gas is HUGE, not to mention, more than double the specific weight of a gallon of liquid gasoline.

While I agree that there are a lot of expensive externalities, I think they use a lot of shifty math in order to support their conclusions here.