Gas Price Gouging

With the media hysteria over the supposed "price gouging" of oil companies I thought it would be prudent to see what goes into the price of a gallon of gas. First off the oil companies make roughly 9 cents a gallon in profit. Doesn't seem outrageous to me, how about you? In fact oil companies are generally right in the middle of percentage of profit as all public corporations.

What might be surprising to find out is that 50 cents out of every gallon of gas is taxes. The federal government takes 18.4 cents, the state and "other taxes" account for the rest. You can find out where your state rates in taxes on gasoline here. Here in North Carolina we are right at the average. My old state of Illinois taxes gasoline at a rate 10 cents higher.

So, who is actually doing the gouging? It sure ain't the oil companies, it's the government. What I'd like to see is an investigation by the oil companies into the government to see where those 50 cents a gallon is going. Then I'd like the government to cut those taxes and give us drivers some relief. Of course that isn't going to happen.