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MAP: U.S. gas prices by county
Are gas prices starting to burn a hole in your pocket? Oil has hit $100 a barrel as turmoil in the Middle East continues to shake up the global supply chain, and push fuel prices up well over $3 a gallon -- in most parts of the country. The folks in Montana are holding onto their greenbacks, while Californians are getting burned at the pump. Check out this U.S. gas price heat map, created by gasbuddy.com, and find out where your county stacks up.
If you strip out state/local taxes, and recalculate for real estate value and cost of living, gasoline costs about the same everywhere in the US.
The high wholesale price of refined gasoline is really the subject of the discussion. Oil companies are reporting record profits, pay low or no corporate tax, receive preferential tax deductions and subsidies from the federal government during a deficit, and pay their executives huge bonuses. They raise prices quicker than that of the global un-refined oil price and never really lower prices to follow.
We, as consumers, do not have a free market for retail gasoline. Disruptive price swings create uncertainty with planning in any business.Ever-increasing prices are a tax on each of us, with revenues not going to the general good but to the corporate boardroom, and this practice needs to be stopped.
isn't it also the commodities investment groups that bank on higher prices down the line, and drive up the cost of the gas? Thanks for such a succinct analysis which shows the cosmic question we are facing: why as a nation have we not moved on to clean energy. We've had 30+ years of the oil companies killing us.
