12 cent gas

[lame54]

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11676
June 16th, 2008 7:47 pm
Venezuela: Land of 12-Cent Gas

By subsidizing gasoline, Chávez spreads the oil wealth. But the cost of those cheap fill-ups is becoming hard to ignore

By Peter Wilson / BusinessWeek

Global oil prices zoomed up to $135 a barrel this past week. But that doesn't worry Roberto Morales, a 33-year-old Venezuelan businessman. Morales, who drives a compact Volkswagen Gol, still pays only $1.32 to fill up his car with 11 gallons of high-octane gasoline, thanks to Venezuela's subsidized fuel price.

"This is crazy but I'm not complaining," says Morales. "Gasoline here is cheaper than water."

He's not exaggerating. Gasoline prices in Venezuela are the cheapest in the world—1/15 the price of a liter of bottled water, and 1/25 the price of a liter of milk. Since 1998, Venezuela has kept the price of gas fixed at 0.097 strong bolivars a liter, or about U.S. 3¢ (lower octane is 0.070 strong bolivars). That means that consumers pay about 12¢ a gallon, or 1/33 of what their U.S. counterparts pay.

[deaniac21]

1. God, I wish we had Venezuela's freedoms!

[The2ndWheel]

2. So the whole environmental impact thing goes out the window when it gets too expensive?

You want to subsidize gasoline consumption in the US? I thought we wanted to tax it so that we could pay for healthcare and education for everyone?

We want to subsidize the taxes on gas consumption, so that we can make the gas cheaper in order to conserve, while allowing more people to use more of it since they're healthier and more educated, then decreasing our environmental impact by increasing our ability to impact the environment even more? Interesting. I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. Can I get that without signing up for it?