Gas in Scotland translates to $14.00 / gallon

[paparush]

My wife is spending the summer in Scotland (working on WWOOF farms). I sent her a picture of our local gas station sign showing the price of regular at $4.04 /gallon. She and her farm hosts started talking gas price and they are paying the equivalent of $14/gal.

We in the US are learning the hard lesson that driving is a privilege, not a right.

[graywarrior]

1. They can't isolate us because of the internet, so they are isolating us from meeting in person.

[Squatch]

2. Scotland is also about 0.8% of the total land area of the United States

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. That's due to a bit of price gouging because of a recent tanker drivers' strike

Exchange rate is about $1.95 = £1, so $14 = £7.18. At 3.78 litres to the US gallon, that would be £1.90 per litre. The AA reports, for June, Scottish prices at an average £1.18 for petrol, £1.32 for diesel. Even in North Uist, about as remote as you can get, the price is £1.30 for petrol - http://www.silversprite.com/?p=553 .

But there was some gouging in the UK, at £1.99 a litre: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_7458000/7458425.stm

I think they must have just seen another example of gouging.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. The GOP has enronned the energy marketplace again.

I hope the lesson we've learned is that we cannot trust GOPhers to run anything, especially a country's energy policy.

And safeguarding our food supply and running emergency management and the military and...

[gratuitous]

5. How is that $14 apportioned?

As far as I can tell, with the price of gas going from $2 to $4 a gallon, that extra two bucks is going straight into the coffers of large oil companies. While that's probably a boon to yacht builders, it doesn't do much for our society at large. In Scotland, I'm guessing that the extra money is going to fund public health, road building, school construction and maintenance, and a number of other things that benefit a far larger proportion of Scots than just the yacht builders.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. (a) it's not $14, it's about $8.70 - see reply #3

(b) The AA (equivalent of the AAA) says 57.5% of the pump price is tax - so that would be $5.00 our of $8.70.

According to this, the average combined state and federal gas tax in Jan 2008 was $0.47/gallon. Taking the taxes off the state average prices here, the pre-tax price is in the same area in both countries.

[gratuitous]

7. My suspicions were correct

Scots pay more at the pump to fund programs that benefit everyone. We pay more at the pump so oil barons aren't embarrassed to sail into the marina in last year's model yacht.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Well, the increase in the Scottish price has been about the same as in the US

and that goes to the oil companies. It's just that it means the percentage paid as tax has decreased, as the total price has gone up:

The following figures come from the AA. Unleaded petrol was introduced in 1988. The following table shows the pump price in pence per litre, and the percentage of the price that is fuel duty.

1988 36.73 61.10%
1989 38.52 59.25%
1990 42.76 58.65%
1991 46.06 61.55%
1992 46.08 65.55%
1993 49.54 67.13%
1994 51.70 69.64%
1995 54.20 73.17%
1996 56.66 76.10%
1997 61.97 77.14%
1998 65.17 81.48%
1999 70.58 81.14%
2000 80.77 75.07%
2001 76.78 75.33%
2002 74.33 76.56%
2003 76.56 75.26%
2004 80.87 73.18%
2005 87.22 68.89%
2006
2007 95.10 66.7%

http://snowflake5.blogspot.com/2008/05/fuel-duty-and-petrol-prices.html