A higher amount of people in Europe rely on heating oil (diesel) to heat their homes, which makes it expensive there....and there's a LOT of fuel tax also. Which is GOOD, because they have nice SMOOTH roads that don't destroy their cars. You can barely drive around here the roads have gotten so bad.
Diesel is expensive in the US because the refiners are only working the meet the bare minimum of diesel needed. Refineries here are set up to produce gasoline for the most part, and a lot less diesel. So with the increase in trucking we've seen over the past several years, everyone is competing for diesel.....if they would build in more refining capacity for diesel it'd alleviate the problem somewhat.
A big part of it is also Big Oil + the government. They know that if 50% of the US drove diesels, their profits would sky dive because of a much lower demand for fuel as all those cars/trucks would be far more efficient. So they lobby to keep diesels out of the picture and force people to keep using a ton of gasoline.
My dad was just in Germany for 3.5 weeks in January and said diesel is around $6.50 - $7 a gallon when you do the conversion.....and gasoline is between $7.50 and $8.50 a gallon.
So before you complain too much, think about that.
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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
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