Post Tagged with: "Gasoline Tax"

Global Reality Check – On average, American drivers are taxed roughly 10 times less than their European counterparts for each gallon of gasoline

October 23, 2014 at 7:36 pm

Below is a tweet that got me wondering.  Despite knowing the bad status of the Highway Trust Fund, why is congress so hesitant to raise the gas tax? I’m sure many of you are left asking the same question. Several years have gone by and many transportation reauthorizations bills have been enacted since the last time we raised the gas tax (in the early 1990s). But there is still no appetite to raise the gas tax, even by a few cents (and there seems to be any sense of urgency as well).  Hopefully this trend is reversed in the upcoming re-authorization in 2015.  BTW, am I alone in thinking that this picture below also subtly answers why we love our cars so much and like to build houses far from the urban core? What would happen to our current development model/real estate practices if gasoline was taxed like how it is done in Europe?

If you get a chance, visit this brilliant website (by ARTBA), Transportation Makes America Work, to see the impact of how this current gas tax situation is affecting the nation’s progress (you can even check out the impact on your particular state’s infrastructure). Also if you are interested, you can take action by contacting your local representative right on the website (and if you are a transportation nerd like me, you can always download the app on your phone and be ready to spill the facts in any discussion).

Image courtesy: tmaw.com –

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U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu rules out raising petrol prices to European levels through increased taxes or regulation; says politically infeasible

May 28, 2009 at 11:10 pm

(Source: Financial Times)

Reducing America’s reliance on oil by raising petrol prices to European levels through increased taxes or regulation is not politically feasible, says Steven Chu, US secretary of energy.

The admission comes as Congress considers a cap- and-trade system that opponents say will substantially increase petrol prices just as oil prices soar to their highest level in six months.

In the past Mr Chu, a Nobel laureate, has argued that, if the US wanted to reduce its carbon emissions, policymakers would have to find a way to increase petrol prices to levels in Europe. But in an interview on Wednesday with the Financial Times, Mr Chu said: “At this moment, let me be frank, it is not politically feasible.”

Higher petrol prices are likely to be one of the biggest potential sticking points ofPresident Barack Obama’s cap-and-trade system when the bill moves from the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives to the more conservative Senate late this year.

Mr Chu’s move against using taxes to raise US petrol prices is likely to frustrate environmental advocates who believe that the only way seriously to change Americans’ consumption habits is through higher prices.

Unlike Europe, the US hardly taxes its fuel, leading to pump prices that are often one third of those in Europe and to the average American consuming double the amount of oil of his European counterpart.

But Mr Chu warns that Americans will have to learn to live with higher petrol prices even if Washington does not enact policy that boosts them.

“Regardless of what one does in any sort of taxation, I believe that prices of oil and natural gas will go up in the coming decades,” he said, adding: “They will naturally go up just because of fundamental supply and demand issues.”

Mr Chu was adamant that a cap-and-trade system would be necessary to cut emissions. “We need to begin to put a price on carbon. We need to ratchet down the carbon,” he said.

The bill currently under consideration in Congress would reduce emissions by about 2 per cent a year.

A key question, however, was “how to help the US make the transition”, he said. Many states are heavily dependent on coal, or have energy-intensive industries, and the administration will need to win over lawmakers from these states to have a chance of passing the legislation.

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