So I am working on a long post about our adventures in Portugal, but in the meantime, I've also been catching up on the news.
Of course, fuel prices are continuing to break records. And we've been hearing a lot about US prices.
I tend not to pay so much attention to the gas gauge when driving here in Stavanger. My focus is more about staying in gear, so since the motoring began there have been several times when I have been dangerously close to the red zone, which in out car means "No More Fuel, Sucka."
Plus Car uses diesel and I have an overwhelming fear that I will totally space from the stress of it all and fill it up at the wrong nozzle.
Husband is much better about those things than I am so he keeps an eye on it.
We don't drive so much, so a tank lasts us a pretty long time. And really the high prices here don't really freak me out so much any more. I've stopped converting as much and have gotten used to the two hard facts:
1) It's just the cost of living here, so get used to it.
2) There are just some things that should be purchased in pretty much any other country.
But Saturday, when we filled up, I audibly gasped and immediately started running the math in my head.
This is what the screen looked like to fill up our 2008 Saab 93 Diesel.
(Or almost fill up...I suspect that it's a 50 liter tank, mainly because it's a nicer round number, not because I know anything about cars or care so much to find the actual specifications.)
And I am happy to help with the math.*
49 liters = 12.9 gallons
12.93NOK = $2.55 US
633.57 NOK = $124.99 US
Which means that we are paying $9.68 per gallon of diesel.
And gas is pretty much at the same.
And while I am well aware that we live in the most expensive country in the world, I am having a hard time grasping the enormity of the price of fuel.
Is it a "sin tax" to discourage driving?
Or is it the general cost of living which comes from the fact that we live so far north and the cost to import is factored in as well as the massively high taxes.
Then there is the ecological awareness which leads to the fossil fuel taxes, I suspect.
But I am looking all over for information and other than finding out we are the second most expensive place in the world to buy gas, I can't come up with a concrete reason on why we pay so dang much.
Mainly what I am having a hard time understanding is --- If we are living in a country where oil and petroleum is the biggest business, why isn't there some kind of trickle down cost benefit?
*All of which are rounded off to the nearest 100th. The monetary factors are calculated using today's exchange rate.)
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