Personally, I find the comparison of gas prices between the US and the UK to be unfair. There are some basic differences in the countries:
- Overall size of the country, and how far people can have to travel.
In the city it is less so, but for people who live out in the country... Where my parents live it's like 60 miles to get to a mall (and a small one at that). It's 15 miles to the closest grocery store... And they're on the edge of a town with a population of 5,000. Further away, the town center is like 3 houses and 1 store...
Albuq is a fairly decent sized city here...but over the whole state of New Mexico, the average distance between 2 houses is 3/4 of a mile last I heard...
- People up where my parents live, it's not unheard of for some of them to have to drive 30,000 miles per year or more... I knew someone who got about 100,000 miles in 2 years
and most of her driving was work related. It isn't that she had a high paying job, but rather she had to find odd and end jobs where she could. The ecconomy up there, could be better...
- Public transportation in a lot of the US is from non-existent (out in the country, forget it for instance), to at least here in Albuquerque, pathetic. It's basically designed to get people to/from work. Otherwise, forget it; having to depend upon it is the pitts.
From what I've heard, Europe has better public transportation then what we do. I grew up in New Jersey, and know that New York has better public transit also...
- Gas prices effect more then just drivers, but can also effect the trucking and shipping industries, along with air lines (well jet fuel) and the like. The effects go much farther.
There are things that could be done, and perhaps if things get out of hand enough coal to oil conversion (among other things) might be feasible. There would be a cost in building the facilities. America has enough coal to be the Saudi Arabia of coal to the world...
If a comparison between US and UK prices is fair game for discussion, then perhaps a price between US and Saudi Arabia gas prices would be fair game also
All 3 are different markets however, and the general conditions surrounding this are different in each of the 3, above mentioned countries...
Gas prices did go down a bit, a few weeks back (about 15 cents a gallon), but have since gone up higher then they were... One thing I will say speaking for myself. This wouldn't do something about base prices, but as to state taxes...
In New Mexico, there are a lot of Indian reservations... Indian reservations are considered federal territory and not under the state's jurisdiction in terms of taxes and other such matters. As these prices keep going up, I'm becomming more tempted to find the nearest reservation to where I live, and start buying my gasoline there, where it's totally non-taxable, and the portion the state adds to the gas price would be removed...