\jeff{krimmel}

My Second $30 Tank of Gas

I wrote about my first $30 tank of gas a couple of weeks ago. Today I bought my second $30 tank. I purchased 9.648 gallons of regular unleaded gas at $3.319 per gallon for a grand total of $32.02.

I am still shaking my head thinking about spending over $30 for a tank of gas for a Honda Civic. Good thing we invaded Iraq. I would hate to think about what gas prices would be like if we had not opened the flood gates to increased oil production there like the administration promised. Oh, right…that hasn’t happened:

Predictions that Iraq’s oil production would increase dramatically following the US-led invasion of Iraq have proved over-optimistic due to the deteriorating security situation in that country.

I got sufficiently pissed with this theme of increasing oil and gas prices that I did some web surfing to get an idea of just how much money President Bush and this Republican-controlled Congress are giving America’s oil companies. I stumbled upon a discussion paper from two members of the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law. The paper is titled Americans and their “Wheels”: A Tax Policy for Sustainable Mobility.

The basic premise of the paper is that the fossil fuel industry as a whole (and gasoline producers in particular) have been given a huge tax shelter for over 90 years now. And this shelter isn’t weakening any time soon. In fact, on the other end of the spectrum, some tax credits for alternative fuel sources are being phased out on December 31 of this year. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the tax code yourself, specifically section 30 and section 179A. You can read all about each credit and then scroll down to the end of the page and read the “Termination” clause:

This section shall not apply to any property placed in service after December 31, 2006.

Nice. And yes, that’s how pissed off I got. I read parts of the tax code. Now you can probably understand how furious I am.

But don’t tax incentives to big oil companies make gas cheaper? According to the discussion paper,

These studies indicate that tax subsidies reduce the price of gasoline by 1 1/2 cents per gallon (on the low range) to 7 cents per gallon (on the high range). [page 12]

Great, so instead of paying $32.02 for my tank of gas tonight, I would have otherwise paid between $32.17 and $32.70 had President Bush and this Republican-controlled Congress not given big oil companies billions of dollars each year. Whoop-dee-doo. And what’s the tradeoff for this 15 to 68 cents I’m saving? Global warming, increased reliance on foreign oil in politically tumultuous regions, and more American deaths in Iraq defending our access to oil there. Umm…I’ll pay the extra 15 to 68 cents.

The extra frustrating thing is thinking about what the alternative energy market would look like in this country if it had received the handouts big oil gets. It’s pretty hard to compete in the marketplace when your competitor is getting his pockets lined by the President of the United States.