Research for a blog post below led me to an interesting page at http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-much-oil-do-individual-americans.html which provided the statistic that on average, Americans use 2.58 gallons of oil per day per capita This has remained remarkably consistent over the past 25 or so years. (The graph is quite interesting.)
Another source, http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/770386.html says that oil consumption in the rest of the OECD countries (beyond the US and Canada) is 1.4 gallons per day per capita, and that outside the OECD, gas usage is 0.2 gallons per day per capita. (sourced to:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/oil_market_basics/demand_text.htm
and
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/oil_market_basics/dem_image_cons_per_cap.htm#Consumption%20of%20Oil%20Per%20Capita
The same post notes:
The difference is these countries' transportation sectors, with their dependence on private vehicles to travel relatively long distances
What might we learn from this about what we must do if we are going to reduce our dependence on oil?
Ultimately, I think we will find that we simply won't be able to solve our oil problem without land value taxation. If you're new to this site, that will seem like a huge logical leap. But my exploration of the issues keeps leading me back to that conclusion.
2.58 gallons per person per day. Okay. When the price per gallon rises by $1, a three-person family will be paying $2,825 more per year. (That assumes that all usage is allocated to the residential sector -- commercial, shipping, public works, etc. -- with no middleman markup.) To whom does this go? No the gas station or the heating oil company. Mostly to the oil companies. Some to the state of Alaska, some to the owners of land on which wells sit, some to foreign sovereigns.
Comments