Where $4 Gas is a Bargain

Europeans are protesting $8 a gallon gasoline. A revealing excerpt from The Christian Science Monitor:

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called for European Union (EU) cuts in fuel sales taxes to help consumers, noting that as fuel prices have shot up, so has the tax take. But the EU objects. It argues this would drain public coffers and merely benefit oil producers.

"The European Commission considers this to be extremely dangerous, because it sends a very negative message to producing countries to say they can raise prices because we will counteract that with [lower] taxes," says Ferran Tarradellas, a spokesman for EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs.