This Eye-Opening Map Shows The Reason Gas Is More Expensive In Some States Than Others | The Minority Report Blog

This Eye-Opening Map Shows The Reason Gas Is More Expensive In Some States Than Others 

This Eye-Opening Map Shows The Reason Gas Is More Expensive In Some States Than Others

Jul 13, 2014

People are constantly harping on oil companies for charging so much for gasoline. That is fine, harp and complain and even boycott all you want. We support Freedom of Speech. At the same time though pay attention to how big a bite Federal, State and even County and City governments are taking out of every gallon of gasoline.
From IJReview.com:

As the summer travel season hits full force, a common question is “Why is gas so expensive?”
As this chart shows, a big chunk of the cost of gas goes to state and federal taxes:
The federal excise tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and the rest of the taxes depends on the state and varies greatly around the country.
The two states with the biggest taxes: New York at $0.505 and California at $0.4978. The two states with the lowest taxes: Alaska at $0.124 and New Jersey at $0.145.
Expressed as a percentage, based upon current prices which are $3.678 as averaged across the nation, the price for a gallon of gas breaks down like this:

• 10% for refining costs and profits
• 10% for transportation and retailing costs and profits
• 13% for taxes and fees
• 67% for crude oil

One thing to notice: The total costs and profits for everything except the oil is just slightly larger than the amount that goes to state and federal taxes.
No matter how you slice it, a very big chunk of your gas dollars makes its way to state capitals and D.C. - far more, in fact, than the gas companies themselves make.