BANGOR, Maine — Tumbling gas prices mean that delighted drivers in Maine are paying an average price of $1.74 a gallon — but that’s still a dime more than the price in neighboring New Hampshire, and almost a quarter more than in New Jersey, according to the American Automobile Association’s latest figures.
With prices nationwide ranging from $1.49 a gallon in Montana and South Carolina to $2.52 a gallon in Alaska, the discrepancy in Maine can be explained in part by transportation costs, but mainly by state-added fuel taxes, officials say.
In Maine, transportation costs for fuel tend to be higher than in many other places, in part because there are no refineries in the state, said Jamie Py, president of the Maine Oil Dealers Association. The fuel must be trucked in, adding costs.
Moreover, “Maine’s gas tax is 10 cents a gallon higher than in New Hampshire,” Py said last week. “If you compare the prices regionally, that leads us to perhaps what could be the problem in Maine, and that is taxes.”
According to the American Petroleum Institute, an oil and natural gas trade association, Maine’s gasoline tax of 47.5 cents a gallon ranks as the nation’s 16th-highest fuel tax. California’s 63.9 cents a gallon gasoline tax is the highest in the country. Alaska, which levies a tax of 26.4 cents a gallon, is the lowest.
The numbers include state and federal excise taxes and other taxes.
Most of Maine’s fuel tax generates revenue for the state highway fund. For the 2008 fiscal year, the gasoline tax raised $184 million and the diesel tax raised $46 million, according to Peter Beaulieu, director of the sales, fuel and special tax division of the Maine Revenue Service.
A small portion of the excise tax on fuel revenue generates money for the Coastal, Inland and Water Fund and the Groundwater Fund, but the vast majority is spent to maintain the state’s roads and bridges, said a Maine Department of Transportation spokesperson.
“About 67 percent of the Highway Fund revenues are derived from the gasoline and diesel fuel tax,” said Herb Thompson, director of the DOT’s Office of Communications.
Fuel tax revenues have been declining for more than a year now, he said, because they are tied to consumption — not to the price of fuel.
Maine’s motor fuel tax is adjusted every year according to the consumer price index.
“Nationwide, for many, many years, motor fuel consumption didn’t go down. It continued to gradually rise. Obviously, in the past year, the cost of fuel finally began to have an impact on purchasing,” Thompson said.
According to the most recent figures available from the state, the fuel taxes collected increased by 0.2 percent in October from the same month in 2007, but the fiscal year-to-date taxes were 2.3 percent less than in 2007.
The downward trend for the fuel tax means more challenges ahead for the state agency, which also must meet Gov. John Baldacci’s target of a 10 percent reduction in base spending.
On 12/29/08 at 5:50 AM,
Govt2Big wrote:
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Yes indeed, these lower gas and heating oil prices were a great Christmas present for all of us. However, we all know they won't stay at these levels for ever so we must prepare for the increase. It's time for us to Drill Here & Now, and that should include within Maine's land and waters. We need to keep our energy costs as low as possible, and we CAN do that while protecting our great natural resources.
On 12/29/08 at 6:07 AM,
markko wrote:
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Ummm... I think your reasoning needs some rethinking, Govt2Big.
The answer is to get more alternative energies out there, not keep some ancient petroleum based economy rolling.
Just think! The more electric cars (etc) that are on the roads, the less fuel demand there will be - hence bringing fuel prices (and the need for foreign oil) down.
Just think! The person who invents an electric motor for the 18-wheeler will be a gazillionaire -- not the person who drills, baby, drills in Maine.
On 12/29/08 at 6:41 AM,
Knightscross wrote:
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Maine should increase the fuel tax. The roads are falling apart.
On 12/29/08 at 6:59 AM,
RussHermon wrote:
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Its time this thousand year debate ended. We need to have a statewide vote on energy. Let the people of Maine decide what is an acceptable source of energy that they would allow in their backyard. Wether it be wind, hydro, nuclear, drilling..etc. We also need to put pressure on Baldacci and our legislature to change how we distribute the power we produce in Maine. The power WE produce in Maine should take care of Maine people FIRST then hit the grid. When the people of Maine vote, and an energy source is chosen, then go full force. There is absolutely no reason why Mainers can't live cheaper than they do during the heating season. Instead we protest every source of power that comes along. ie..Lincoln wind mills...etc.etc.etc..It goes on and on. " We the people"....does it not mean anything anymore??
On 12/29/08 at 7:12 AM,
Xavier wrote:
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Ms Curtis, you need to do at least one small bit of research before making claims like this.
There are many more factors in play than just the state tax. In Maine as of October 2008, the tax on gas including 18.4 cents of federal tax is 48.3 cents, New Hampshire's rate is 38.0. Why then is gas 20 cents higher on the average in Maine? One year ago when the state gas price average for Maine was $3.04 per gallon, it was the same in New Hampshire. Another interesting comparison is Ohio. Gas tax there is 46.4/gallon, or just 2 cents lower than Maine's. The average per gallon price one year ago was the same in Ohio as in Maine, now the Maine average is more than 20 cents a gallon higher, why is that? The gas retailers will charge what they can get away with, that's why gas in Newcastle is sometimes 10 or 15 cents more expensive than it is in Brunswick. How can you explain why Irving in South Portland is charging $1.55, but the same chain in Falmouth charges $1.73? To your credit at least you didn't get sucked into that tired old claim from gas dealers that they only make 2 cents per gallon that they sell, I've heard that hundreds of times, and it's bunk! Imagine if that was the case, then the sale of 10,000 gallons would yield a profit of just $200, if that were true every gas retailer would qualify for complete idiot status!
On 12/29/08 at 7:35 AM,
augustagoverned wrote:
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Maine has the highest per capita tax costs in the country. The money goes-------where? Oh, providing an imbalanced budget? Great management.
On 12/29/08 at 9:03 AM,
Rogue_Wave wrote:
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Thank you George Bush for the low gas prices. I know it was your fault when they were high cuz all the moonbats said it was, so it must be you we praise when they are low.
On 12/29/08 at 10:16 AM,
pjramsay wrote:
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For Augustagoverned - I think if you read the BDN you will find that we are somewhere around the 16th highest taxed state in the nation. Gas taxes is not the reason that we pay more for gas and heating oil. As this article stated, all our fuel must be transported here because we do not have a refinery.
We can bring high paying jobs to Maine and reduce cost by building an oil refinery where Navy Brunswick now sits. I am sure that Cianbro can help with the construction and the federal government can help pay the construction cost.
Just a thought.......
On 12/29/08 at 10:19 AM,
bicycle1 wrote:
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Yes the high price of oil will return because they can. Yes it is time to develop alternatives. The gazillions of dollars that could be made are already here. Look at Back Yard Gardens. In Madison Maine today they are growing millions of tones of tomatoes. Today they are utilizing hydropower for some of its value. Through the use of thermo blankets and solar heat today, these people are raising twenty-five acres of tomatoes here in the great white north. Now just imagine the possibilities of developing alternatives. The hydro is here in Maine. Imagine shipping tones of vegetables to one fifth of the population of North America. A east west and a north south anti magnetic mono rail, each only a few hundred miles in length could connect the market places of one fifth of the population of North America. This rail system could also connect passenger service that could enable easy access to four-season recreation. When compared to the alternatives of rebuilding a monstrous highway system or drilling for or pumping oil or gas thousands of miles this type of development sounds very reasonable. The time for this development is now. Could we have survived many winters of four dollar a gallon oil and gas? The other alternative will leave us isolated and cold. This monorail to the market places will put the Penobscot and the Kennebec Rivers right in the center of economic growth. This is our rightful place when you consider the alternatives this is a direction worth considering.
On 12/29/08 at 10:20 AM,
Jenna_T wrote:
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Well, let's not let this ebullience get the better of us. Now that developing "alternative energy" technologies is off the front pages, how easy it is to put out of our minds that gas prices will be back up before not very long, indeed. Check out Thomas Friedman on this topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/opinion/28friedman.html?em How soon we forget.
On 12/29/08 at 11:22 AM,
chemaine wrote:
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"Just think! The more electric cars (etc) that are on the roads, the less fuel demand there will be - hence bringing fuel prices (and the need for foreign oil) down.
So where is the electricity going to come from? THINK!!!!!!!!!
On 12/29/08 at 11:25 AM,
boogyman wrote:
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Irving has a refinery very close by. I don't think the transportation charge has a lot to do with the local price. We are getting gouged on heating oil in the Bangor area, gross profit for the distributers is higher than it has ever been by far. I think the lack of competition in the area has a lot to do with it. I would like to see a refinery or LNG terminal in Maine, but I think that would require all of the bums in Agusta being put to the street, and be replaced with pro business individuals. I think we all know thats never going to happen.
On 12/29/08 at 1:12 PM,
MDIROB wrote:
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no matter what form of energy is promoted as needed it will always be the "Not in my backyard crowd" that will scuttle it. Trees will be removed for either wind farms(noisy blades) or Solar Farms(not smart in that climate on the scale needed).
R
On 12/29/08 at 1:28 PM,
CeeBlue wrote:
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'knightcross'---are you not taxed enough already?
Would you not prefer the $ for roads come from fiscal responsibility V. more taxes! ? !
Incredible---! A person in Maine wants more taxes.
On 12/29/08 at 1:51 PM,
cynical wrote:
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On 12/29/08 at 01:12 PM, MDIROB wrote:
no matter what form of energy is promoted as needed it will always be the "Not in my backyard crowd" that will scuttle it. Trees will be removed for either wind farms(noisy blades) or Solar Farms(not smart in that climate on the scale needed).
I second MDIROB! Not to mention the unaffordability and availability of any new technology or fuel will keep the Working folk from enjoying the benefits!
Come drill in my backyard! I'm all for it! The neighbors might get PO'd but I am goo with it! Throw a windmill on my proerty if you want! I would love to but again, I don't have an extra 10-15 grand lying around!
On 12/29/08 at 2:11 PM,
matt29 wrote:
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Does Irving refine oil and gasoline or do they just store it? No refineries in the state, according to Jamie Py (3.14159265).
On 12/29/08 at 3:02 PM,
bicycle1 wrote:
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The hydro power is here. The mills in Millinocket alone formally consumed enough electricity to run a city the size of Bangor. Now that these companies are not making paper????think what. From 3 to 5% in being lost in transit due to the e;lectrical law of resistance. A wire will lose this much power in just one hundred miles. How much is being wasted while the grid sends this power to far off cities. The power it takes to run the subway in Boston would power this whole project. The power is here without building another generator. Just think????
On 12/29/08 at 3:03 PM,
madison wrote:
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Maybe the Gov and his crownies in Augusta should impose a tax on the bicyclest who ride on the roads like they own them, causing a nuisance and accidents and just riding off. If they want the privilage to ride on the roads, pay for it and the cops should treat them like any other motorist.
On 12/29/08 at 3:33 PM,
FREERADICAL wrote:
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How much lumber or lobster traps can they fit in an electric car nowadays?
On 12/29/08 at 4:59 PM,
dirigodad wrote:
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Not to mention the extra energy used in production...and the energy used in "fueling" a plug-in car...and the environmental damage caused by the nickel mining for the hybrid's batteries. But hey...as long as we can feel like we're doing our part, then everything's ok, right?
On 12/29/08 at 5:15 PM,
bicycle1 wrote:
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Who says the roads are only for auto's. I drive auto's in fact I have three of them now. So I pay my share of road cost. I don't see how this should exclude a bicyclist from riding on or off road. However even with four dollar gasoline road repair is becoming a thing of the past here iin Maine. It really is time that we start to think of alternatives to the auto driven interstate highway system that has developed since the early fifties. Let look at atenatives, bicycle paths or look at the type of systems, such as trolley cars that use to connect the entire east coast.
On 12/29/08 at 5:59 PM,
MiloCrabtree wrote:
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That's some explanation of line loss, bicycle1. I'm going to guess you're not an electrical engineer and leave it at that. So if we get rid of the interstate highway system, you propose to replace it with a trolley car that goes, say, 65mph? That's some ride, boyo, and to think I would get to enjoy that with a trolley full of other people. Will the tomato trolleys go that fast too?
On 12/29/08 at 9:21 PM,
Kevin_of_Bangor wrote:
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When gas is back around 1.20 a gallon I'll consider it low. 1.69 is far from low. I'm glad I'm not paying over 4 dollars a gallon but gas is still high in my opinion.
On 12/29/08 at 9:22 PM,
bicycle1 wrote:
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No I am not an electrical engineer. I did check with an electrical engineer because this loss of power did seem absurd. In this day and age of global warming, we are bailing out Detroit. Is this collapse due to gas prices or is it a financial collapse due to a housing market collapse. This housing market collapse may be due to the fact that suburbia is not working for middle class America. It is difficult to keep up with a high mortgage and a long gas guzzling commute. In many suburban neighborhoods people are just walking away from their foreclosed homes. We have a recession leading into a depression. So lets bail everybody out of this mess and start all over again. A clinical definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. The time for change is now. In Japan and in Europe there are super trains. These trains carry freight and passengers at high speeds to and from rural areas. This high speed travel allows much of the congestion along the highway system to be relieved. How much gasoline is wasted in traffic? How much truck traffic could be saved, how many miles of highway would not have to be paved just by running a central rail service. This east west rail as well as a north south corridor could save a large percentage of the energy we use today. This idea is what made Maine industry work during the last century. This is production and consumption near to the source of generation. This is an age old philosophy waste not want not.
On 12/30/08 at 4:44 AM,
MiloCrabtree wrote:
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I don't know what parts of Europe and Japan you've spent time in but the ones I've worked in have a huge amount of automobile traffic and congestion. I traveled from Fukuoka to Hiroshima last spring on one of your high speed trains and the roads contiguous with the railroad right-of-way were filled with Hondas and Toyotas. I agree with you in principle, however, that we need a modern rail system. I do not agree with this global warming business, however. The earth has been cooling for the last decade and there's damning (if you're a flat earth global warming alarmist) that the sun drives the climate instead of our puny CO2 emissions. We should be more worried about another ice age than about run away AGW. The church of Gore should be no more.
On 12/30/08 at 4:58 AM,
MiloCrabtree wrote:
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I don't know what parts of Europe and Japan you've spent time in but the ones I've worked in have a huge amount of automobile traffic and congestion. I traveled from Fukuoka to Hiroshima last spring on one of your high speed trains and the roads contiguous with the railroad right-of-way were filled with Hondas and Toyotas. I agree with you in principle, however, that we need a modern rail system. I do not agree with this global warming business, however. The earth has been cooling for the last decade and there's damning (if you're a flat earth global warming alarmist) confirmation that the sun drives the climate instead of our puny CO2 emissions. We should be more worried about another ice age than about run away AGW. The church of Gore should be no more.
I'd like to have seen those high-speed tomato trolleys :)
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