Today's Gas Prices For Geeks

[Conan71]

[tim huntzinger]

If you like that, the blogger from whom Conan is lifting the image has lots of other funny stuff (snot sucker, glowing green baby, porcupine-meets-dog) that he posts.  How do you ever find these images, C?

[Conan71]

I heard Neil Boortz previewing his show on KRMG on the way in.  He was ranting about the folly of the gas price gouging bill.  I was trying to figure out why he thought the bill was a bad thing, went to his web site and this was on the page.  I couldn't figure out the url to lift it from his page, so I googled "gas price sign".  Never paid attention to what blog it came from.  Now I gotta go back and find the rest of the funny stuff you are talking about.

Must be popular, it was the second or third image which came up in the search. []

[cannon_fodder]

More government regulation is not the answer.  If we FURTHER restrict the gas industry we will only see costs rise and associated regulated price rise.  Or, like Hawaii since their regulation, we will suffer gas shortages.

High prices have a way of fixing themselves with better gas mileage or a better term fuel source.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

More government regulation is not the answer.  If we FURTHER restrict the gas industry we will only see costs rise and associated regulated price rise.  Or, like Hawaii since their regulation, we will suffer gas shortages.

High prices have a way of fixing themselves with better gas mileage or a better term fuel source.

Turns out the bill is nothing more than a publicity stunt crammed in right before the Memorial Day holiday, that's from several sources, not just Boortz.  

Reading the language of the bill, it's got about as much of a bite as the non-binding resolutions on Iraq did.

[AMP]

I believe a large portion of the gasoline price at the pump is in the form of taxes.  Not sure where those dollars are being spent, but seems to me if anyone is gouging the price of gasoline it is in the form of the tax that is set at a perventage of the price and not at a specific amount per gallon.  

The budget, when the tax was made, was most likely based on the price of gasoline at the time the tax rate was decided. That may of been on the less than $1.00 per gallon version of fuel.  

Since it has tripled in price, seems that the gas tax should have a cap of what ever the total was when the percentage tax rate was set.  

Reducing the total tax on gas would be a start.  

One needs to remember that gasoline sold for less than $1.00 per gallon for over 100 years, but I believe it only took around 4 years to top $3.00 per gallon once it topped the $1.00 mark.  Helped along by the petroleum distribution companies installing programable digital price signs after installing programable digital guages on retail pumps.  

Prior to that the analog pumps only went as high as 99.9 cents per gallon.  And the station attendant had to use a hand held long pole to change the prices on the sign.  

Most service station owners would not change the price until they received their next load of fuel from the tanker truck delivery driver, and exchanged onion skin credit charge receipts and or cash for payment of the new batch of fuel.    

Occasionally there were local and regional "Gas Wars" where stations competed on price to draw in customers.  Don't see that too often since the invention of the digital sign and pump.

[AMP]

Sure are paying much more than I did in 1964 because an entire gallon of gasoline was only 16 cents then. And according to the Tax Chart the tax is 18 cents in Oklahoma and an average of 64 cents per gallon nation wide.  

I am not a math major and don't want to get into fuzzy math comparing what the dollar bought then and now, but it seems 64 cents tax per gallon is far more than what I paid in 1964.  

Minimum wage per hour 1964 $1.25 Gas 16 cents
Minimum wage per hour 2007 $5.25 Gas $3.29

In 1964 gasoline was only 16 cents per gallon.  How much was the tax then?

How much are the taxes now...

If they are over 16 cents per gallon, when did the increase take effect?  Because back in 1964 the total price at the pump was only 16 cents gas and tax combined.

[AMP]

Sounds as if Texas has a clue.

United States of America

The first U.S. state tax on fuel was introduced in February 1919 in Oregon. It was a 1 cent per U.S. gallon (0.3¢/L) tax. In the following decade, all of the U.S. states (48 at the time), along with the District of Columbia, introduced a gasoline tax.

By 1939, an average tax of 3.8¢/gal (1¢/L) of fuel was levied by the individual states. The fuel tax in Texas is currently set at 20¢/gal since being raised to that amount in 1991. In May of 2007, the Texas House of representatives unanimously voted to pass a 'gas-tax relief' period for the 2007 summer driving period.

While state fuel taxes had been around for more than a decade, the first federal gasoline tax in the United States was created on June 6, 1932 with the enactment of the Revenue Act of 1932 with a tax of 1 cent/gal (0.3¢/L).

The U.S. federal gasoline tax as of 2005 was 18.4¢/gal (4.86¢/L), and the gasoline taxes in the various states range from 10 cents to 33 cents, with an average about 22 cents per U.S. gallon (5.8¢/L), making the average combined tax on gasoline 42¢/gal.

Unlike most goods in the U.S., the price displayed includes all taxes, rather than being calculated at the point of purchase.

[AMP]

When I started operating a motorvehicle on the street gas was 16 cents per gallon, my license tag for a brand new motorcycle no matter the size was $8.50 per year and you renewed them in December of each year. You were not required to have a Safety Inspection or carry liability insurance.  

My first Honda I bought from Jandebeur's Honda on Pine street, saving the money I earned working for six weeks at minimum wage $1.25 per hour, plus I had extra money I earned playing in our rock band on Saturday nights.  

No matter what the ratio of taxes on gasoline are today versus then, one would be hard pressed to purchase and legally operate a brand new street legal motorcycle today for $240 total.  Oh forgot, I had to also buy a pair of Paulson Bubble Goggles that cost 49 cents to be legal.

Believe my drivers license ran $1.25 and was good for I believe 2 years.  It was a simple paper blue deal with typed information on it.  Majority of folks living in Oklahoma then were pretty honest, so there was no need for photos and fingerprints and a sealed document as seems to be the case today.

Doubt if a kid 14 today, as I was then working for minimum wage, could even save enough cash in six weeks to afford four months of just the required liability insurance today.  

Glad I grew up in the 60's when I did and was able to work and purchase my own vehicles and operate them on the street the day I turned the legal age of 14.  That is a blessing I count with enjoyment to this very day.