Are we Paying too Little for Gas? written by Reid Wilson Today in Central Illinois, a gallon of gas generally costs between three and four dollars. For many, at first glance, that seems like a high price to pay for just one gallon of gas that will only take them about 20 miles. However, many environmentalists and organizations have begun to vocalize the idea that we are paying too small a price when considering what actually goes into making and consuming that product. According to a landmark video by the Center for Investigative Reporting, there are countless invisible costs to the mining, transport, purchase, and consumption of gasoline. What this organization did is followed a gallon of gasoline from the time it was mined until its use in a vehicle and found that there is much more to the price we pay for gas than meets the eye. A defining set of statistics from the Center are as follows: One gallon of gas being used produces about 25 lbs of greenhouse gas pollution. American drivers each use an average of 557 gallons of gasoline a year. This means that a single US driver creates about 10,000 lbs of greenhouse gas every year, which takes about an acre of forest to clean from the air. This may seem like a lot, and it really is especially when it’s taken into account that there are about 238 million cars and trucks in the United States. The pure time, energy, and material cost of completing such tasks would be immense, much more than the cost for any other good which we so readily use. This is the consideration that allows the argument to be made that the United States is not paying enough for gasoline.
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