We took this information from the
book entitled Plan B 4.0 by Lester R. Brown (New York: W. W. Norton and
Company, 2009), p. 17.
You can find further information about
this subject in "The Real Price of Gasoline: Report No. 3, An Analysis
of the Hidden External Costs Consumers Pay to Fuel Their Automobiles"
at the website of the International Center for Technology Assessment. Here's a
quotation from its executive summary:
"The majority of people
paying just over $1 for a gallon of gasoline at the pump has no idea
that through increased taxes, excessive insurance premiums, and
inflated prices in other retail sectors that that same gallon of fuel
is actually costing them between $5.60 and $15.14."
Imagine what these figures might be now that we have experienced
gasoline at $4.00 per gallon!