Thought leaders piece; Where gas money goes

C3 Press [Carbon Constrained Communications] recently released their first issue of "Thought Leaders of the New Energy Economy", which included a piece by SeQuential CEO Dave Garten, as well as by leaders in other industries. Check it out here (255k pdf).

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The latest NACS (a gas station / convenience store association) magazine published some interesting facts regarding where money goes on a gallon of gas, using 2007 average prices.

• 58%: Crude Oil
• 17%: Refining
• 15%: Taxes
• 9%: Distribution and Retail (20% of which goes to credit card companies)
• 1%: store income

This is slightly misleading though, since taxes ($0.484 is Oregon + Federal tax), distribution and retail (a set few cents per gallon), and store income (a set few cents per gallon) are all fixed numbers that don't change with gas prices. Simply put, when you read of crude oil prices hitting all time highs, gas stations aren't making any more money, the people pulling oil out of the ground are.

For users of pure biofuel, the taxes, distribution and retail, and store income would all be about the same. I'm not sure how the rest of it goes, but my guess is that the raw materials (raw oil and other production inputs) would make up by far the largest percentage.