There's a lot of talk about gas prices in the USA. And more than a little bit of whining about how expensive it has become to operate absurdly oversized on-highway vehicles.

If it helps you feel any better, we're paying 710 colones per liter for diesel right now.... that's about $4.94/gallon. Not a low price.

And operating a small, efficient vehicle down here has some legitimate pitfalls- there are ruts here into which you could drive a Honda Civic.

There is talk of the government slashing taxes on diesel and applying extra taxes to gasoline under the theory that the working vehicles of Costa Rica operate on diesel (I'd guess at least 90% of the commercial vehicles use diesel). There may even be some justification to the notion that many gasoline vehicles are inefficient luxury cars, but it seems to me that it would be sensible to tax vehicles directly based on their specifications vs. taxing them based on their fuel. I don't envy the politicians trying to work this out.

The good news? Costa Rica is working hard to make biofuels a significant percentage of our national energy mix, which gives some hope.

Labels: fuel, gas prices