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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Baloo: [QB] In the military, you travel a lot. If it isn't for official business, it's to visit relatives on the other side of the continent. I'll tell you some day about driving 3,000 miles each way in a 1986 Chevy Sprint (Suzuki Swift) four-door, but not now. I have observed something which makes no logical sense to me: <blockquote>The price of gas seems to have no relation to the cost of transporting it to the point of sale from the refinery.</blockquote> The price [i]does[/i] seem to fluctuate as a function of demand and ability to pay. You will never find cheap gas in beverly hills. Here in New Mexico, right in the heart (or upper spleen, at least) of Oil Country, the price of fuel tends to go up in the summer when we want to travel a lot, and down in the winter when the weather's so bad you don't drive unless you are required to by law or (in my case) regulation. The seasonal fluctuation is expected. Regional price variation seems to be tied in to the general cost-of-living. (Prices shown below are for unleaded regular. Add 10-25 cents for mid-grade unleaded or 25-40 cents for premium.) When I was stationed in South Carolina, the price of gas dropped from where it had been (about what I pay today, just over a dollar) to around 65 cents. That was as low as I had seen it in 10 years. Later, I was stationed in California, and the price in Sacramento was about 1.15/G. In San Francisco, the price was about 1.35/G. I hear in L.A., the cost is around 1.75-1.85/G. The reason American gasoline is so cheap, compared to European fuel prices, is simple: <blockquote>They don't produce much there.</blockquote> Most (probably all, since I don't hear about how cheap the gas is in Slobbovia) European countries have a stiff tax on petroleum products (including fuels). This has the effect of artificially reducing demand so the balance of trade doesn't resemble a severed golden artery, spurting precious monetary value out of the country faster than other trade can bring it in. It also encourages efficient vehicles and ones that use alternative (made there or cheaper anyway) fuels. The advantage is that if a large percentage of oil-producing nations got together and decided to fix the price of crude at an absurdly high value, the European nations could just tighten their belts and say "Sorry, but we can do without quite as much as we had before". Japan is in a slightly more precarious predicament. If I am not mistaken, japan imports virtually all of it's fossil fuels. This makes Japan particularly careful not to disturb the tranquility of its fuel-providers. It also makes Japan particularly keen on technology (such as nuclear power, wind power, and wave power) that lessens this dependance. They like it very little, thank you. I don't blame them. --Baloo P.S.: I got side-tracked from the original topic. Did I make sense anyway? [/QB][/QUOTE]
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