N�rnberg, Mittelfranken, 2005-09-07 - 3:48 a.m.

Since the catastrophe in New Orleans (maybe soon I will write more about it.. )

- & because there was also a big loss of petro refineries & reserve depots, they had also here in Europe at once the gas price raised for 4 cent more to now about 1,41 Euro per litre - if anything important happens in the whole wide world, they alway raise the gas price -

let's say this 1,41 Euro price - that's 1,76 American dollars per litre - is'nt that much for american conditions - oh yes I forgot - Americans think in gallons - they have all these strange not- decimal measures like inches, miles, gallons etc. no-one else in the world than themselves understand..

but let me research what this price would mean for a gallon..

so wait a minute I have to research..

Here are the number & measure facts I found in my old english-german dictionary & in the actual prices of gas gallons in the internet:

1 litre = 0,2642 gallons
1 gallon = 4,5459 litres

Here a price list of Gasoline in the USA of September the 5th of 2005:
- the prices are per gallon:

East Coast: 3,197 $
New England: 3,226 $
Central Atlantic: 3,292 $
Lower Atlantic: 3,118 $
Midwest: 3,038 $
Golf Coast: 2,914 $
Rocky Mountains: 2,583 $
West Coast: 3,025 $
West Coast less CA: 2,973 $

That means in average = 3,041 $ per gallon

you know my goal is to set these prices in relation to German gas prices.

By the way the quotation of Euro vs. US. Dollar is:

1 Euro = 1,24538 $
1,34 Euro = 1,6688 $

The result of all this figurung is that a gallon of gas costs about 7,98 $ here in Germany - wow - would you like to drive your car here around? - that's more than twice of american gas prices! - on the other hand - our countries are much smaller if you're driving long distances, but of course most people just drive to their job & to their nearby friends & supermarkets

What brought me up to this theme, was a report I heard today in the news. Of course it was about the gas prices & I heard that the state takes about 80 percent taxes for gas here in general -

if the prices get higher about 5 cents & all people are mad at the gasoline companies, who abuse the political situation - I mean we should get all aware that the state gets 4 cents if they get one - so who's the real gangster on our moneybags?

I googled the taxes for gas in the US. - I couldn't find much - but found out - they are individual in the different states of the USA - at least I found the tax amount of Florida - that's just (& only) 6 % tax for gasoline in Florida.

So what would 7,98 $ per gallon mean if we had only 6 % taxes like in Florida instead of 80 % like (really!!!) here in Germany taxes for gas.

wait I minute while I figure this out..

please keep on waitin'..

..

.. please don't leave my site while I'm figuring - you know it needs time..

..

Results: without taxes gas would cost only 1,60 $ per gallon -
that's an astounding amount with Florida-like 6 % of 1,70 $ per gallon -

hey that's much cheaper than in the USA, where the oil companies & the companies between take twice of much than here.

The USA economy would totally collapse if they got imported our gas prices

why not close my entry of today with an old song by the Kinks (british pop group of the 60th, 70th, 80th etc.)

I just cut the following report page of american gas mourning of an american site - Imagine what they would tell here, if they got European prices - these school busses actually just wouldn't exist anymore:

"School buses, snowplows and squad cars, which burn millions of gallons of gas a year, can burn million-dollar holes in budgets.

"It's really wreaking havoc," says Jeff Esser, CEO of the Government Finance Officers Association. "They really have two choices: Raise taxes or cut back on other programs or services. That's it."

Some examples:

� In Boston, school buses ferry 33,000 students from home to classroom every day. Last year, the city budgeted $1.9 million to fuel its buses. The actual cost: $2.8 million.

This year, officials increased the budget to $3.4 million and are keeping their fingers crossed.

"It's not a pretty picture," says Richard Jacobs, transportation director of Boston Public Schools. "You don't know where you're going to be six months from now."

Drivers are being asked not to let their vehicles idle too long, Jacobs says.

� In Atlanta, the city has already burned up its 2005 budget of $3.5 million for fuel and is running a deficit, says Chuck Meadows, budget chief for the city. "We haven't yet started altering routes for police officers, but that may be something that we have to consider."

� In Omaha, the city's 1,700 squad cars, trucks and other vehicles consumed 1.3 million gallons of fuel last year. It cost $1.7 million, largely because the city had locked into a favorable contract with an enviable price of $1.49 a gallon for unleaded gas and $1.10 for diesel, says Carol Ebdon, city finance director.

That contract expired this year and costs shot up. Omaha expects to pay $2.5 million for fuel this year, she says.

"It will come from taxpayers," Ebdon says. "We have not raised taxes, we've saved through efficiencies. But ultimately, it's the taxpayers who pay."

� In Kansas City, Mo., city vehicles burn 1.7 million gallons a year, city spokeswoman Mary Charles says.

"So each 10 cent increase costs about $170,000. We've gone up 80 cents. That means it's over a million dollars that we'll have to fund," she says.

� In Pecos County, Texas, 14 sheriff's deputies patrol 4,700 square miles of west Texas mesas and deserts. They put 2,000 miles on a squad car in a month. With gas at about $2.50 a gallon, they're feeling the pinch.

"It's affected us tremendously," says Chief Deputy Thomas Perkins. Last year, the sheriff's department had to ask county officials for more money and probably will have to do so this year, he says.

� In Los Angeles, school district officials anticipated rising costs last year and spent $5.5 million of $6 million budgeted to transport 75,000 students each day, says Antonio Rodriguez, director of transportation for Los Angeles Unified School District. This year, they plan to ask for more during budget deliberations, he says. "

Keeping buses running is critical, says Anne L. Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association. "We often forget that, particularly in rural America, the bus is really the connection to a child's learning and their future," she says.

But fueling them is costly.

The Fairfax County, Va., school district, which transports 110,000 students daily, pays $2.19 a gallon for diesel fuel, says Mary Shaw, a spokeswoman for the school system in suburban Washington. A typical school bus takes 65 gallons. That makes the price of a full tank $142, and it doesn't go far on a vehicle that gets 7 miles per gallon.

The Fairfax district spent $3.7 million on gas last year, $1.1 million more than it had budgeted, Shaw says. This year, the Fairfax fuel budget for buses is $4.9 million.

For all of its vehicles, the fuel budget is $5.4 million, which translates into less than 1% of the district's overall spending, she says.

Local government officials say many of the costs are non-negotiable.

"How are you going to ask ambulance drivers to save gas?" asks Dick McKinley, director of public works in Bellingham, Wash.

Watch for cutbacks in services and layoffs if gas prices continue to bust budgets, says Tom Goodman, a spokesman for the National Association of Counties.

"Counties that have fleets of trucks for hauling, squads for sheriffs, ambulances � they're going to feel the rising costs," Goodman says. "What they'll try to do is reduce services or staff before they raise taxes."