...and I'm not sure if the new Rep Gov Crist reimposed them or not. It does appear that Florida's gasoline prices are still twenty to thirty cents lower per gallon than the rest of the country. Just how much tax is imposed on crude oil and the various products produced from petroleum? Certainly it has been the Bush/Cheney doctrine to allow oil prices to follow market demand and I am not aware of any new taxes on oil and resulting products that the Bush administration and republican controlled congress have imposed since Jan 2001 when gasollon was selling for an average of $1.52 per gallon in the U.S.
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Global comparison of price per gallon of gasoline (January 2001)
UK $5.05
Norway $4.54
South Korea $4.52
France $4.28
Japan $4.16
U.S. $1.52
China $1.34
Ukraine $1.00
Kuwait $0.76
Indonesia $0.45
Venezuela $0.40
Source: Runzheimer International.
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How much are we paying for a gallon of gas?
We pay about $3.00 for a gallon of gasoline at the service station. But the real price of gas is much higher and camouflaged by myriad direct and indirect costs associated with maintaining our oil economy. How much are you actually paying for gas? Take a closer look at the hidden bills footed by your taxes:
The cost of securing our access to Middle East oil..is estimated at $50 billion per year..
The federal government subsidizes the oil industry with numerous tax breaks and government protection programs worth billions of dollars annually. These benefits are designed to ensure that domestic oil companies can compete with international producers and that gasoline remains cheap for American consumers.
Our dependency on oil from countries that are either politically unstable or at odds with the U.S. subjects the American economy to occasional supply disruptions, price hikes, and loss of wealth, which, according to a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy, have cost us more than $7 trillion present value dollars over the last 30 years. That is more than the cumulative cost of all of the wars fought by the U.S. since the Revolutionary War. The transfer of wealth to oil-producing countries - $1.16 trillion over the past thirty years - significantly increased our trade deficit. The Department of Energy estimates that each $1 billion of trade deficit costs America 27,000 jobs. Oil imports account for almost one-third of the total U.S. deficit and, hence, are a major contributor to unemployment.
The cost of securing our access to Middle East oil - deploying U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, patrolling its water and supplying military assistance to Middle East countries - is estimated at $50 billion per year, which adds additional dimes to each gallon of gasoline we purchase
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http://www.iags.org/costofoil.html