Try the prices in Europe for a while.
PARIS – When Guy Colombier pulls his economy car up to a Paris pump, he allows himself just 15 Euros ($18) worth of gas - barely enough for three gallons. Since prices started rising rapidly earlier this year, says Mr. Colombier, a printing press worker, “I drive a lot more slowly … and I’m looking for a place to live closer to where I work.”
Colombier’s pain is shared by drivers all over Europe, where fuel prices are the highest in the world: a gallon of gas in Amsterdam now costs $7.13, compared with just $2.61 in America. The contrast in prices and environmental policies - and the dramatically different behaviors they inspire - signals a widening transatlantic energy gap. And it raises the question: Does Europe offer America a glimpse of its future?
Indeed, while Europeans have learned to cope with expensive fuel (mostly due to taxes), there’s scant evidence yet that US drivers are adopting their conservation tactics.
“Societies adjust over decades to higher fuel prices,” says Jos Dings, head of Transport and Energy, a coalition of European environmental NGOs. “They find many mechanisms.”
Chief among them, say experts, is the habit of driving smaller and more fuel-efficient cars. While the average light duty vehicle on US highways gets 21.6 miles per gallon (m.p.g.), according to a study by the Paris based International Energy Agency (IEA), in Paris, its European counterpart manages 32.1 m.p.g.
“European consumers are very sensitive to fuel economy and sophisticated about engine options,” says Lew Fulton, a transport analyst with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). “European car magazines are full of comparisons of fuel costs over the life of a vehicle.”
There are fundamental reasons, though:
But efficiency alone does not explain the huge disparity between fuel-use figures on either side of the Atlantic: European per capita consumption of gas and diesel stood at 286 liters a year in 2001, compared to 1,624 in the US, according to IEA figures.
The nature of cities plays a role, too. “America has built its entire society around the car, which enabled suburbs,” points out Mr. Dings. “European cities have denser centers where cars are often not practical.”
In Paris, for example, about half the trips people make are by foot, by bicycle, or on public transport, says UNEP’s Mr. Fulton. In America, that figure is more like 20 percent.
Read the entire article. There is a very interesting graph at the end, showing how current fuel economy in Europe is higher than the supposedly “impossible” fuel economy standard set by California for 2016.
Impossible, hmmm?
No.
Europeans feel they have a “right” to government-provided social services such as “free” health care.
Americans feel they have a “right” to cheap gasoline.
Think about it the next time you hear someone complain about the price of gasoline and the “gouging oil companies”.
