This one is coming to you off the list. Thanks for the note, David. I could not agree with you more. Certainly, the taxes are much higher on fuel in Europe. The end result is that the consumer pays a whole lot more for his fuel than we do, so he is therefore more highly motivated to use less of it. I'm not saying that is good or bad, but that is the way it is, as you say. Paul Kruse At 12:14 AM 6/17/00 -0500, you wrote: >Hi Paul > >I do not want to get to far off subject. But your comments about our fuel >cost being to cheap Vs the European market really bug the hell out of me. >Most of the high cost of European fuel is the higher tax rates imposed on >there fuel. In the USA this is very evident in the difference in road >diesel Vs. marine diesel. > >Also government rules and regulations are having a great effect on fuel >prices. The current problems in the Midwest with the high cost of gasoline >is greatly due to the EPA's mandate for reformulated gas in these areas. It >cost more to refine and there is not the volume demand for it. > >More efficient diesels are coming because of the European emission standards >which are causing most all of the builders to go to turbo's in order to get >the engines to meet the new government standards. This same trend is under >way in the USA. Besides the trend to all turbo engines most of the newer >engines, as you spoke of , are being built to much tighter tolerances and >going to electronic controls to more closely monitor load and fuel needs. > >Bottom line I fail to see the need to pay more fuel taxes just to be like >the rest of the world. > >David Keese >Houma, La > >alabat > >. >> >> You can see a close parallel with a number of automobiles sold in Europe >but >> not in the USA. I recently rented a large minivan in Spain that got >> excellent fuel economy -- far greater than I would have expected in the >> states. It was no dog. It probably had more power than I would have >> expected from any US minivan. That was a state of the art clean and >> efficient diesel engine that is only sold in Europe. The reason that it >is >> popular there and not here is because our fuel is still too cheap to >justify >> the additional cost of an efficient engine. Estimates for putting these > > > > > >