If you happen to be driving down the road in Ireland and notice a big sign that reads 'EMO' don't pull over expecting to catch a concert by Fall Out Boy or some Emerald eyeliner pop-punk outfit, but rather a place to fill your gas, excuse me, petrol tank. Because in Ireland EMO is a gas, literally. Emo Oil Ltd. is the name of a small Irish oil company that supplies all grades of fuel oils, heating oils, diesel and petrol throughout Ireland.
And while Emo is a gas, the cost of a gallon (or liter, as it is sold in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe) is far from funny. At over $6 a gallon it is enough to silence any vocally disgruntled American gas-guzzler who is shocked at today's US pump prices which, as of last week, registered at a high of $3.30 a gallon in San Francisco with a national average registering at $2.78 for a gallon of Regular. That's bargain basement prices compared with current European pump costs where the cheapest gas found is in France at $6.21 a gallon and the most expensive in the Netherlands at $7.09 a gallon.
These prices are for premium gas as of April 7th, 2007. But most interesting is that, despite the ever increasing petrol costs, Europeans are driving as much now as they were ten or fifteen years ago.
Woah, gas over 6 bucks? Now that's something worth updating your LiveJournal over.
Posted by: JMet | April 12, 2007 at 12:57 PM
despite the ever increasing petrol costs, Europeans are driving as much now as they were ten or fifteen years ago.
Ha. Ha. Ha. Case closed, foolish Europeans!
Or not. Are they driving less than they would have sans the petrol taxes that I assume are the reason for prices being so much higher? Surely there are a lot more potential drivers now than there were ten or fifteen years ago?
Posted by: binky | April 12, 2007 at 07:39 PM
Actually it's a puzzle: not only are we Europeans driving more, we're buying more cars, we're travelling more miles by train and flying more as well. Meanwhile the population of Europe is more or less static over the same period. The reason for all that extra travel is a mystery, but the economics aren't.
There's a subtle misrepresentation in the original post though that needs correcting. Yes petrol prices are rising but they started expensive because there has always been a tendency to tax fuel heavily here. So the situation was the same 10/15 years ago. Meanwhile income has grown making the overall cost of owning a car cheap (fule goes up, but purchase cost goes down).
Also we deal with it by buying cars that don't burn as much fuel. Chevrolet's most fuel efficient car - the Aveo - maxes out at 37mpg on the highway. And they're proud of that! It's possible to buy a Ford Focus (similar market niche) in Europe that does 70mpg (diesel) while the petrol equivalent does 50. And that's assuming that you can persuade an American to buy a small car: there are very few SUVs on the roads in Europe.
Posted by: J L Smith | April 13, 2007 at 05:53 AM
In fact, the relative difference between American and European gas prices has decreased over recent years. I remember times when gas in Germany was about four times as expensive as gas in the US.
Posted by: Lukas | April 13, 2007 at 10:35 AM