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“The oil, gas, and coal industries get deductions from income for things such as depreciation, exploration expenses, and devaluation of the mineral rights they purchased as the minerals are extracted thus making that particular mineral right less valuable.  But, as others have pointed out, they still pay income taxes which in many cases amount to more than their after-tax profits by a considerable margin.  Windfarm and solarfarm developers get a handout to them of taxpayer dollars in the form of cash grants or production tax credits and get to depreciate their capital investment at an accelerated pace as well as take other deductions similar to any industrial firm including the oil companies.

If you research a few studies on the environmental and cost impacts of green energy technologies, you will find actual results from Europe, where there has been heavy investment in wind, that  indicate wind costs considerably more than fossil power when all factors are considered and you will also find it does virtually nothing to decrease CO2 emissions because of the necessity to run fossil fueled power plants at part load to back them up due to the high variability of output and frequency control issues as well as make power when the wind is not blowing.

By the way, the fossil energy industries are investing heavily in green techonology to get the tax credits to decrease their tax bills which means anyone not involved in green energy shoulders a larger portion of the tax bill.  One also must consider the life enhancing benefits that electrification has brought to the world.  Try reading Climate Coup and Climate of Extremes to provide balance to EPA’s numbers-out-of-thin air adverse impacts and Al Gore/Michael Moore BS.”

Also read Power Plug-In to get an understanding of the different energy sources.

Even the Unions agree on this!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=150359891

The EIA has information about the price of gasoline in the past two years by regions in the United States and also the components of the costs at the following URL: http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/

More information about the dynamics of the pricing of oil and further to the pricing of gasoline is in an article in Bloomberg Business Week at this URL:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-25/oil-trades-near-one-week-high-goldman-sees-demand-gain

The average price of gasoline in the United States for 2011 is $3.90 per US gallon, according to the EIA.  Because fluctuations in currency exchange and prices it is difficult to determine an exact price of gasoline for other countries.  However most of the developed countries pay much more for gasoline, particularly Europe, then we pay in the United States.  The range in Europe is from $6.00 per gallon to $10.00 per gallon.  The highest price for gasoline in any major country is England (UK) at $10 per gallon.  Denmark comes close at $9.01 and maybe more for today, this was a 2008 price and exchange rate.  The lowest price for gasoline is Venezuela at about $0.18 per gallon, but of course this is very politicly motivated.  Some politics are always involved in the supply of fuel.  Most countries of the world put a tax on gasoline.  In the United States it is about $0.40 per gallon or about 11% of the cost, in the UK and some parts of Europe the tax can be as high as $8.0 per gallon.  Most major industrialized countries have a higher tax on gasoline then the United States.  For complete details about taxes on gasoline refer to this URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tax#Asia

The price of gasoline is on everyone’s mind because on any major roadway the price is displayed at almost every service station.  However, the average driver in the United States probably drives about 10,000 miles per year with an average gasoline consumption of 20 miles per gallon.  This results in a yearly cost for gasoline at $4.00 per gallon of $2,000, about what one probably spends on his or her cell phone and internet usage.

As the price of gasoline is set by supply and demand plus some perception factored in it is very difficult to control the price.  Although price increases can be politically damaging (it has been reported that the consummate politician, President Bill Clinton, watched the price of gasoline like a hawk because he knew that any price increase in this commodity would be damaging in getting votes).  It is very difficult to accuse elected officials, like the President of the United States, to be responsible for the price of gasoline.  Actually I do take the stand that we probably should pay more for gasoline as the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Stephan Chu has unpopularity stated.  This could be in the form of a carbon tax which Sweden already does.  However there could be restrictions on gaining access to domestic oil that can influence the supply and therefore the price.

Doug Koplow

Earth Track, Inc.,

2067 Massachusetts Ave., 4th Floor,

Cambridge 02140, MA, USA

E-mail: dkoplow@earthtrack.net

Abstract: Hundreds of government subsidies have fuelled the growth

of ethanol and biodiesel in the USA, worth half or more their retail price.

Cumulative costs under some mandate proposals exceed $1 trillion by 2030.

Even using favourable assumptions, reduced greenhouse gas emissions from

biofuels are far more expensive than other options: more than $100/mt CO2e

even for cellulosic ethanol and nearly $300/mt CO2e for corn-based fuel.

Despite rising concerns, environmental screens in existing subsidy policies

remain weak or non-existent. A platform- and fuel-neutral policy structure

forcing all alternatives to conventional fuels to compete for market share

should be deployed instead.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Koplow, D. (2009)

‘State and federal subsidies to biofuels: magnitude and options for redirection’,

Int. J. Biotechnology, Vol. 11, Nos. 1/2, pp.92–126.

Biographical notes: Doug Koplow is the Founder of Earth Track, Inc.

(Cambridge, MA), established to provide greater transparency on government

subsidies to environmentally harmful activities. He has worked on energy

subsidy issues for the past 20 years, including a number of detailed assessments

of subsidies to biofuels in the USA.

This along with the $.45 per gallon subsidy to blend the alcohol with the gasoline for reduced mileage is made by the US Government through taxes that are out of your pocket.  With the above article this means that if gasoline is at $4.00 per gallon, you are paying $8.00 per gallon for the alcohol addition but because it is from government subsidies you can’t really see it.

Gasoline, made up of only hydrocarbons, has a higher energy content than an alcohol.  This is why, according to the Energy Information Agency (a US government agency), states that Ethyl Alcohol (this is the kind of alcohol made from corn) has a heat content of over 83,000 BTUs/gallon, whereas gasoline has a heat content of over 124,000 BTUs/gallon.

This means when you mix alcohol with gasoline (as in gasohol) you get less miles per gallon.  Actually you get 4 to 5% less mileage with a 10% mixture of alcohol in the gasoline to make gasohol.  At 15% you get even less mileage.  This means that if your car gets 30 miles to the gallon on pure gasoline with an alcohol mixture of 10% you will only get 28 to 29 miles per gallon.  Hence you burn more fuel and use more fuel with this alcohol mixture.

Read the article on Reuters