What Makes Gasoline Expensive? #
June 10th, 2008 | In Worth Reading
Everyone knows the role of supply and demand, but this Explainer column offers a number of interesting factors that make for differences is price both across states and within them. One of the many things I hadn’t considered:
Retail gas prices can vary depending on state and local environmental requirements. Urban areas with particularly dirty air are required by federal law to sell “reformulated gas” for all or part of the year, and because the cleaner-burning fuel is refined through a special process, it tends to be a little more expensive than regular gas.