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California Copied Europe's Insane Energy Playbook, And Now Residents Are Really Paying the Price
Even as U.S. gasoline prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security.
Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences.
Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed on April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3–$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and “green” levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising over half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.
This isn’t an accident of geography or culture. Americans built a sprawling, car-dependent economy after World War II and have repeatedly rejected European-style punishment at the pump. Europeans tolerated it, and their politicians weaponized fuel taxes as an easy money grab, and to force behaviors preferred by their central planners.
The result is embedded inflation across every sector: Higher costs for trucking food, shipping goods and powering industry. Europeans don’t just pay more to fill their tanks — they pay more........