Slate — of all outlets — is running a piece that asks why Missouri has the lowest-priced gas in the country.
Three reasons:
1) Gas taxes — Missouri’s gas tax is 17.6 cents per gallon; North Carolina’s is 30.15 cents.
2) Pipelines — which is related to supply. Missouri is at the intersection of several major pipelines. Theoretically, North Carolina is doing even better here — with several trillion barrels of untapped reserves sitting just off the coast (but far enough off so that beach-goers wouldn’t even see the rigs).
3) Ethanol — the price of which is rising more slowly than the price of crude oil. Of course, as Slate points out, ethanol is increasing food prices. The solution? Cut taxes on groceries too … by exempting groceries from the local-option sales tax of 2 percent.
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