United States

A Federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon is collected in all fifty states. Wisconsin has the highest state tax on gas with regular gasoline and diesel both taxed at a rate of 31.1 cents per gallon. Alaska has the lowest tax on diesel and regular gasoline as they are both taxed at a rate of eight cents per gallon.

Country Comparison

Gas taxes are considerably higher in other countries. In 2001 the United States gas tax made up twenty-nine percent of the price of a gallon of gas compared to the forty-five percent of the overall price that the Canadian gas tax accounted for. In the United Kingdom, gas tax accounted for seventy-six percent of the total price, while France’s gas tax made up seventy-four percent of the price. Germany and Italy’s gas tax was not much lower, as Germany’s gas tax was seventy-three percent of the total price and Italy’s tax made up sixty-nine percent of the price. Japan’s gas tax accounts for fifty-seven percent of the price of gas and Spain’s gas tax makes up sixty-three percent of the cost of gas.

Gas Tax Organizations

There are some organizations that propose a tax on gas that would not go to the government but would be put into a fund that helps reduce CO2 that is produced by fuel emissions. All proceeds from the tax would go directly to an organization that would run programs designed to cut down on CO2 emissions or eliminate CO2 that is presently polluting the air. One such organization is called Voluntary Gas Tax (VGT).

VGT is run by a San Francisco computer programmer named Brian Skinner. Brian Skinner developed the idea of a voluntary gas tax as a way to solve the CO2 emissions problem caused by fossil fuel usage. Proceeds secured by the VGT go to programs such as Plant-it 2020 and Trees for the Future who seek to protect and plant trees. This helps counteract the emission of CO2 by allowing the natural processes of trees to turn CO2 into Oxygen. Other programs such as the International Bicycle Fund are sponsored by the VGT as a way to cut down on the actual emission of CO2 by using other forms of transportation.