Gas IS Cheap: It's Official

As a Brit living in the USA I've always been amused by Americans complaining about gas (aka petrol) prices: they complained when it hit $2/gal and are complaining again now its $3/gal.

The US govt. has a great table that shows the US price compared to Europe, starting a few months after I got here and updated weekly. You can see that ten years ago the UK price was more than it is in the USA now.

The ratio has changed a bit: 10 years ago it was 2.5x cheaper here, now it is "only" 2.1x cheaper. Of course everyone pays basically the same for the crude oil, the price differential is due mostly to taxes. Weirdly federal tax on gas is charged not as a percentage (like sales tax is) but per gallon, so as the price of oil rises, the federal tax remains the same, further insulating Americans from the real price. So they can continue to enjoy their Hummers.

[In my own defence I have to point out that one of our SUVs is a hybrid]