The answer to this serious and now universal issue involves considering multiple factors. They all interact with each other. To get an idea of what it is, we must take a tour of the process that oil follows; from its extraction until, transformed into gasoline and under any of its very diverse variants, it passes through the nozzle (that is the name of the gasoline dispenser that we put in the tank of our vehicles).
The cost of extraction does not have to vary at all. The increase arrives at the moment in which its transport begins. Normally, this implies the use of tankers, and at the moment the demand exceeds the supply, therefore, the freight rates go up. Oil pipelines are also used, but the Russians are practically closed or stopped, either due to political will or due to some “technical failure”. When it arrives at its destination, running these also costs energy, just like trains and tankers. Everything affects the final price… but not only this. A huge proportion of the price, more than half, goes to taxes. In fact, this is one of the main sources (pun intended) of funding for the state. A state that today has to face the many expenses generated by an economic crisis that transcends the war in Ukraine, no matter how much those responsible for the government repeat the contrary.
is trying to find the square of the circle: Keep the collection high, reactivate the economy, reach the level of our European partners, forget the “ertes” and generate employment. To these declared challenges, we must add other unconfessed ones: increase clientelistic public employment, subsidize “progress initiatives” and, incidentally, redefine the economic and state model. There are too many balls in the air, even more so if the artist who is at the intersection changes the traffic light and stops being red.
The bad news is that, apart from the good news, gasoline cannot be replaced from one day to the next. It is true that Spain is taking decisive steps to make the energy transition a reality; such as the manufacture of electric vehicles or the future But the impact of all this will take longer than desired to be noticed. Neither Spanish citizens, nor those of the rest of Europe, can renew our fleet of vehicles as quickly as we would like, no matter how ecological we feel. On the one hand, we don’t have money, on the other hand, manufacturers still have to amortize their very expensive machinery and adapt their factories and their employees… so we have gasoline for a while.
Lowering gasoline means reducing the mollar part: taxes, rather than squeezing gas stations There are not a few distribution points that obtain more profit margin selling bread or sweets than with fuel. Discounts are fine if they are real and not juggling. Much better still if you don’t have to assume the distribution while waiting for the state to repay you one day. If not, the gas stations will continue to close… and there are already a few. Lowering gasoline would mean for the government to lower it equally for everyone, without distinction of income, car, or geographical location, and this is something that does not fit very well with a government with so much sentiment and class vocation. If we add to all of the above the runaway inflation, of which we have only seen its worrying start, we can conclude that the price of gasoline has no ceiling. My optimistic forecast: in autumn, more than three euros, at Christmas…