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> there's talk about $5-a-gallon To put this into perspective, prices are nearly twice that here in Sweden: http://www.bensinpriser.nu/ http://www.bensinpriser
by geon 16y ago
> there's talk about $5-a-gallon
To put this into perspective, prices are nearly twice that here in Sweden: http://www.bensinpriser.nu/ http://www.bensinpriser.nu/ and Germany: http://gasoline-germany.com/statistik.phtml http://gasoline-germany.com/statistik.phtml
At 14.30 SEK/l, that is 8.80 USD/gallon.
- asciilifeform 16y agoHow far does the average Swede live from the workplace?
- geon 16y agoI don't have any reliable data other than my own experience. I would guess 10 - 30 km. Sweden is a sparsly populated country. Compared to Germany, we have a tenth of the population spread over a larger area. Even though Large parts of the north are practically empty, and the population is concentrated to the cities, the difference is noticeable.
- michael_dorfman 16y agoTo add a bit more perspective: Norway's a fair bit higher. I'm paying about 14.60 NOK/l, which is 10.42 USD/gallon.
- lutorm 16y agoWhich is kind of strange given that Norway's an oil producer...
- unexpected 16y agoTo put this into perspective, the reason your gas costs so much is that Sweden/Germany/other European countries have incredibly high gas taxes. The supply of oil and gas is pretty smooth - Nearly every country pays the same price (with some obvious exceptions - islands, etc.) The reason prices vary so much across US States and Euro countries are taxes placed on the government. If the production costs are really $5 a gallon, the expect to pay $12-$13 at the pump, if Sweden decides to level the same amount of gas taxes.
- narag 16y agoAnd the reason for high taxes is said to be to compensate for the commercial disbalance. So high taxes wouldn't be needed if gas could be produced locally.
- tokenadult 16y agoAnd the reason for high taxes is said to be to compensate for the commercial disbalance. A counterexample to that is Norway, which has abundant domestic supplies of petroleum but still taxes gasoline heavily. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tax#Norway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tax#Norway
- lukeschlather 16y agoActually I think that's just the other side of the coin. While most of Europe has recognized that the public is better off levying heavy taxes to discourage expensive imports, Norway levies heavy taxes to allow for greater quantity of expensive exports. The net effect on society in both cases is positive.
- gnosis 16y agoI don't get it. Why couldn't Norway export oil expensively, and yet make gas cheap domestically? Isn't that what many states in the Persian Gulf do?
- JonLim 16y agoWe're paying around $1.30-$1.35 a liter here in Toronto, which is the equivalent of about $5 a gallon, and that's in CAD. Glad we aren't anywhere near your prices... yet. Even sadder: we produce much of our own oil!
- michaelchisari 16y agoSweden's public transportation was impressive, though. Compare a map of Gothenburg's light rail/tram: http://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2010/imagenes/public-transportation-system-02.jpg http://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2010/imagenes/public-tr... With a map of Houston's: http://www.urbanrail.net/am/hous/houston-map.gif http://www.urbanrail.net/am/hous/houston-map.gif This isn't an exaggeration. Houston really only has one rail line. Other major cities such as Phoenix also only have one line: http://www.valleymetro.org/images/uploads/lightrail_publications/Light-Rail-Line-Map.pdf http://www.valleymetro.org/images/uploads/lightrail_publicat... And both cities are much, much bigger than Gothenburg.