What’s the true price of gasoline? This animated feature from the Center for Investigative Reporting explores the “external costs” of gasoline use in the U.S. — including pollution and the health problems caused by it. “The Price of Gas” video was reported by me, produced by Carrie Ching and Sarah Terry-Cobo, and illustrated by Arthur Jones:
California has some of the dirtiest air in the nation. Consequently, it has some of the strictest rules for gasoline, meaning it burns cleaner than it does in many other states. But cleaner fuels are more expensive.
Clean air requirements, combined with supply and refining constraints, make the price of California gas consistently among the highest in the nation. Turmoil in the Middle East is another factor that pushes up the global price of crude oil. Even though the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in California fluctuates around $4, some experts argue that $4 a gallon is much less than the real cost.
Compared with other industrialized countries, the U.S. has it cheap. The Economist notes that American consumers pay about half of what Europeans pay, which i... Read more
