The True Price of Gasoline

From the Center for  Investigative Reporting comes a short film breaking down the true price of a gallon of gasoline purchased and used in Los Angeles.  The easy-to-follow animated film follows oil from underneath the ground of Saudi Arabia, where America gets 12% of its gasoline, across the ocean, through the refinery, to the gas station, into a car and out of the tailpipes.

While car drivers pay an average of roughly $4 per gallon, when you factor in the damage to the air and people’s health caused by the 25 pounds of pollution created by the extraction, refinement, transportation and use of the oil/gasoline, the real cost is closer to $15 per gallon.  The film is a great teaching tool, and apparently one that is sorely needed if you read the comments section on the film’s YouTube page.  Just as weighing a gallon of gasoline doesn’t tell you the weight of the pollution it creates, the cost of gas paid at a station isn’t the true cost of a gallon of unleaded either.