The True Cost Of Gas (VIDEO)

As gas prices in America strain family budgets, it's worth considering the true cost of filling up at the pump.

The Center for Investigative Reporting has put together this animated video detailing the hidden costs of fuel.

It notes that a single driver creates 10,000 pounds of greenhouse gas pollution a year. It takes one acre of forest to absorb that pollution.

It takes a forest the size of California, Nevada and Arizona to absorb the pollution created by all U.S. drivers each year, according to the center.

Though a gallon of gas usually ranges between about $3 and $4 in America, that price does not include externalities, or hidden costs like emergency room visits, lost work days, missed school days and even death. The video notes that external costs could run the price of gas up to as much as $1.7 trillion per year in the US. That's about $15 a gallon.

WATCH:

Comments

[EcnelisDoogod]

11:29 PM on 06/25/2011

It's understandable that a benevolent government would want to subsidize certain industries to promote the long term goals of prosperity. It's quite another situation when Big Oil calls the shots to thwart competing technologies, engages in endless war with the money, and threaten the health of the planet. Going green is not a choice -- its an imperative.

[MrBadExample]

10:58 AM on 06/25/2011

This is a great starting point for the discussion. But two things are missed here. First, counting ONLY the  environmental impact of cars misses the biggest single externality of driving--the cost of building and maintaining roadways which are themselves an oil product called asphalt. There's nothing very interesting about driving a high-tech Mercedes roadster with lots of horsepower if you're traveling on rutted dirt roads. second, the act of creating a single car involves a lot of oil--anywhere from 20-60 barrels depending on how you count the creation and mining of the steel and aluminum and all the paint, lubricants, and the oil-based tires and plastics.

The costs of road maintenance fall on all taxpayers, since the gas taxes in most municipalities don't begin to cover construction, maintenance, and law enforcement. And our built environment of suburban sprawl can't exist without lots of car usage, which is dependent on cheap oil. Nobody thinks that we're going to return to an era of cheap oil now that Indian and Chinese consumers are competing with us for cars and the related infrastructure.

This video should initiate a call for us to start thinking beyond cars--thinking about reconfiguring our landscape for mass transit, train travel and local walkability.

[Sheldon archer]

11:51 PM on 06/24/2011

Actually it is called greed. If humans really wanted to make a difference, they would ban all oil products. Vehicles could run on batteries and synthetic oil used for lubrication. Or they could use only grain derived fuels. Try telling that to the corporations though

[kraki]

03:06 AM on 06/25/2011

lol, thanks, no. The cheapest solution always wins.

[Genders]

12:51 PM on 06/25/2011

Not grain, but waste bio fuels yes. And it would be cheaper than wars for oil.

[Conservative666]

01:12 PM on 06/25/2011

What wars were for oil? Germany and Japan in the 1930s expanded looking for resources, would you have not fought those wars?

[Ice bear]

09:39 PM on 06/24/2011

This video is completely inaccurate. It omits the staggering cost of the military effort to secure foreign sources of oil.

[rastadaddio]

11:05 AM on 06/25/2011

i was thinking the same thing. we spend a staggering amount on national defense. in my lifetime our military might has been used primarily to secure oil supplies.

[Beachboy1151]

05:48 PM on 06/24/2011

This article is pure leftist Bull! You that believe this idiocy are the same people who voted Obama into office! I think about you everytime I put gas in my car!

[BoFo]

07:20 PM on 06/24/2011

Congratulations on your first comment here on HP. Too bad it's totally lame. You might want to check out the Celebrity News section. That would obviously be closer to your speed.

[IPredictARiot]

11:05 PM on 06/24/2011

Call the whaaaaaaambulance! Beachboy doesn't want to be held responsible for his actions!

We've known this forever, son. Sorry the truth hurts. Hope you have the pleasure of paying for the health damages you do with your car.

[kraki]

03:07 AM on 06/25/2011

You give me a chuckle..... lol, health damages.

Thanks,
Kraki

[ClimateHawk]

05:26 PM on 06/24/2011

I'm getting rid of my car and commuting to work by bicycle.

That should reduce my carbon footprint and give me some much-needed exercise every day.

Anybody want to join me?

[MrBadExample]

10:18 AM on 06/25/2011

Got rid of the car several years ago. I try to commute to work by bike two or three days a week during warm months (the other days I'm on a train). that's 2,000 miles a year, or a minimum of 115 gallons of gas a year over driving (or 10 gallons/year mass transit).

[ClimateHawk]

01:14 PM on 06/25/2011

Awesome.

I just turned in my keys.

[Rude Monk]

01:11 PM on 06/24/2011

It's got no author so it comes straight from the propaganda mill.
If they want us out of the cars they should've built an extensive rail system by now.
By the way,it leaves the military consumers out of the equation again.
For example,one apache helicopter gets half a mile to the gallon.Or,that the air force consumed more fuel in 2008 than the combined european drivers.

[WmC]

02:29 PM on 06/24/2011

Typical of a cancervative response to a message they don't like: supply no data to refute the actual message, summarily declare the messenger unreliable with no evidence to support their contention, and then go on to introduce a number of irrelevant points to confuse the matter. Who is this "they" who supposedly wants us out of cars? Environmentalists? Should they supply the rail system on their own? Or should they simply lobby to have one built? It has been Republican governors who, for the most part, have put the kibosh on rail systems.

[Dayne]

03:06 PM on 06/24/2011

It's hard to break this video down and point out all the fallacies that they try to pass off as fact. It would probably take me something along the lines of 10 pages to give a brief outline of what is wrong with the video and their assertions and that is without even supplying specific facts.

As to Republican governors rejecting money from the Feds, maybe you should ask why? But try to look at the situation as a whole, instead of buying into the "green agenda" to the exclusion of everything else.

Dayne

[MrBadExample]

02:20 PM on 06/25/2011

If they want us out of the cars they should've built an extensive rail system by now.

The Repubs have spent 30 years trying to eliminate operating subsidies for Amtrak. They've also fought any attempt by Amtrak to expand its ownership of the rail right-of-ways, which leaves passenger trains stranded on sidings for hours while freight trains lumber through. Our rail system is an embarrassment that most third-world countries would find laughable. That is by DESIGN. So is the Republican fight to defund any attempt to launch high-speed rail.

[nando858]

11:53 AM on 06/24/2011

Live under this terrible environment. please, tell me why our life expectancy in USA keep going up from mid 70 to 09 is 78.7?

[MoreDimensions]

07:59 PM on 06/24/2011

Less childhood diseases.

[IPredictARiot]

11:06 PM on 06/24/2011

Public health advancements and other "socialist" efforts.

We also have skyrocketing cases of asthma in this country.

[duffman3]

11:10 AM on 06/24/2011

"When your car is hot, gas can evaporate straight through the metal without even being burned."

I call B.S. on that one.

[Yonnas]

10:46 AM on 06/24/2011

That is mind boggling, the question is what we going to do when our planet dries out of natural gas? it seems the world is not ready for that.

[bby328]

10:44 AM on 06/24/2011

I run my tires flat . . . No tread on me . . . :)

[rabbitz]

10:42 AM on 06/24/2011

Please by all means lets see a total cost for "green" energy. From metals mined or plastics refined to the manufacturing, storage, transport, and use of "green" energy. Especially hybrid or electric cars and the batteries. lets stop pretending green energy's shit don't stink.

I agree we should consider the true cost of things, but it is dishonest to single out one particular sector for in depth study while glossing over the other.

The fact of the matter is that no other energy source contains the equal amount of energy in 1 gallon of gasoline, that is as safe, reliable, easy to store, use and transport as gasoline.

This isn't because of some giant oil conspiracy (some oil companies have invested in "green" energy, it usually is not worth it), it is because the physics just isn't there for the alternatives and our current lifestyle.

Lastly, there is no 100% green zero carbon solution. Even if you walk to work you produce carbon by breathing, consume more energy/food (assuming it was 0 carbon grown food), and exhaust fumes (farting).

[IPredictARiot]

11:08 PM on 06/24/2011

A LCA on something like a solar photovoltaic panel is far lower than any car. Proper handling of materials at end-of-life is, of course, essential, but operational emissions are the bulk of issues, and those are far lower with alternative energies.

[MrBadExample]

10:33 AM on 06/25/2011

The EROI (energy return on investment) for gasoline is orders of magnitude higher than the return on solar or wind or nuclear (nuclear never factors in all the 'externalities' of power production). But it's pointless to compare apples and oranges--the EROI on oil has been dropping with the depletion of the big above-ground oilfields in Texas and the Middle East (where returns used to be 100x1). the oil coming up from the gulf is so expensive to get out, the return is around 11x1--that's less than new generation wind, and within striking distance of PV solar.

There are externalities of solar, wind, etc--all use rare earth magnets and other exotic materials. But the eco-footprint of such mining is orders of magnitude less than the damage of practices like hydro-fracking or deep-water drilling when something goes wrong.

[Dave Renfrow]

10:41 AM on 06/24/2011

And the cost of three or four wars? So far I've not seen military bases around wind generators or fighter jet escorts around solar panels. Few people wish to factor the truth that a great deal of our military presence around the world is because we've not develped sustainable energy programs at home. FOr the past 75 years much of the government failure in the middle east has been in part caused by U.S. and Eurpean imperialism.

[zuzuzpetals]

11:03 AM on 06/25/2011

Fan # 2!

[spqesq]

10:38 AM on 06/24/2011

You left out the largest externality of all. War. The costs of securing and defending supply via armed troops, drones, planes, navy support, etc.

[reeltime07]

10:31 AM on 06/24/2011

Protest letter to God;
While I understand you have a lot on your mind at this time, I feel you have forgoten your promise to me. I was told that if I read my bible, prayed for forgiveness, and went to church on a regular basis, I would have a good life. If this is so, why do I have to put up with oil co's and Haliburton? If this is so why do I have to put up with the oil co. lobbieists' and politicians that vote for these co's while letting the rest of us suffer? Therefor until these matters are corrected I will reduce my offerings when the plate is pass at the end of the service at church, an equal amount to the rise in the cost of gas to go to and from Sun. service.
Signed,
A future Pagan

[aposey]

10:35 AM on 06/24/2011

Go back and read your bible. God never promised you a good life. He promised you Heaven after death.

[Sam Deverell]

11:48 AM on 06/24/2011

I read my bible and in Psalms 115:16 shows the heavens belong to Jehovah God the earth he as given to the sons of men also Psalms 37:29-says the righteous themselves will posses the earth and reside forever upon it .no where in the bible did it say god promises everybody heaven after death! Ecclesiastes 9:5 -the living are conscious they will die, but as for the dead they are conscious of nothing at all - so when we die we are not in heaven!
We are in the grave awaiting the resurrection that our lord Jesus Christ long ago promised us will happen in the future!!the earth is where god promised us to live on !

[Sheldon archer]

11:46 PM on 06/24/2011

Would do just as much good to write to the tooth fairy

[reeltime07]

12:12 AM on 06/25/2011

I would but,even the tooth fairy welches on promises( still owes me for 3 teeth I lost 9 yrs. ago).