In today's day and age there are few things that make Americans more frustrated than the recent steep rise in the nation's gas prices. While gas prices are going up, it is easy to blame the middle-eastern countries of purposely limiting the amount of oil that is exported to the U.S. Some people may even think that the foundation of the crisis lies with the major oil companies, and their extreme greed, others think the gas prices are going up because the Earth is simply running out of oil. I am definitely not saying the oil companies have America's best interest in mind, but companies like ExxonMobil, Marathon, and Chevron are huge corporations with many large factories throughout the United States, factories that employ thousands of American citizens each, raising the standard of living and lowering the poverty rate. During a time when it seems as though all of our "American" companies like Ford, and GM are relocating their factories overseas, it looks as though we need more companies like the oil companies to help America from plummeting into a deep depression.

Another fact is that, though the world's oil reserves are receding, there is much more oil right under our feet than you may think. A large oil field has recently discovered on the border of North Dakota, a field holding billions upon billions of barrels of oil. There is also much more oil throughout Alaska that has not yet been tapped into yet.

The truth about what is behind that high price of gas, and where your money goes when you buy a gallon is also shocking, not as much as you would think goes to the big "greedy" oil companies. The oil companies have to buy the crude oil from overseas at a current price of about 142 dollars a barrel, one barrel of oil is equal to 42 gallons, so the gas companies have to pay about $3.38 per gallon for nothing but the raw materials. After the oil was refined into gasoline and ready to put in your car, ExxonMobil recieved about 58 cents a gallon in 2007. Now is when it gets weird. Of the 58 cents, 25 cents went straight to the government in income taxes leaving the oil companies with a profit of about 33 cents per gallon. At the pump the feds collect about 18 cents in excise tax, plus each state charges it's own level of "excise and environmental" tax usually around 20 cents per gallon, on top of all this there is still the sales tax, which would equal about 24 cents for a gallon of gas worth $4.00. So in the end, the oil company recieves about 33 cents per gallon when the government recives about 87 cents per gallon, talk about greed.

The largest reason as to why the price of gas in America has become such an insurmountable burden on American society is also the one that is kept the quietest, and that is the dramatic decline in the strength of the American dollar. Eight years ago the euro was worth 82 American cents and oil was between 30 and 37 euros. If the economy leveled off at that point and the strength of the dollar steady, the price of a barrel of crude oil would cost $80 with a price at the pump of less than $3 per gallon. So as the American government insists on spending trillions of dollars that it doesn't have, the price of gaslone has quadrupled in this country while it has only doubled in European countries.