How Much Should You Pay? Part 1

For those you reading this post and wondering what the heck I mean in the title I will explain.
How Much Should You Pay? is a series of posts I will post periodically show casing one item that may be over priced. When you see [#] it means that is the highest absolute price.

Part 1: Gas
Gas. We all need it. Even if you don't drive or don't need to drive it effects you drastically. How? Anything that requires gas to move anything(shipping, food, and garbage disposal to name a few).
How much should you pay for gas? you ask. Well I will tell you the facts as I know them.
It costs about 12 US to remove a barrel of oil from the ground(each barrel is appox. 42 gallons and yields appox. 19.6 gallons of finished motor gasoline). [$.28 per gallon]The Federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents per gallon and the average State tax is 21.4 cents per gallon.[ $.68 per gallon] Distribution is about and refining is about 90 cents [$1.58 per gallon].
Now let me ask you: How much are you paying for gas?