Fuel taxes can add as much as 80 percent to the retail price of gas. Truckers and taxi drivers protesting the high fuel prices blockaded roads across Western Europe today. In London, some pumps ran out as panicked people purchased as much as they could. In France, nationwide protests have truckers blockading fuel depots, taxi drivers disrupting traffic and fed up farmers threatening to block the Channel Tunnel. Ministers called on oil producing states to increase production so as to reduce prices.
German gas is a few cents less.
The organisation of oil exporting countries, OPEC, Monday agreed to increase crude oil output by 800,000 barrels per day. It is the third time this year that the group has boosted production. It remains unclear whether even this will have a significant impact on prices. They also suggested further efforts by the Paris based International Energy Agency to encourage energy saving measures and called for speedy implementation of an EU energy efficiency action plan released last April so as to reduce oil dependency. The statement is a first coordinated European Union response to an angry campaign for tax cuts that paralysed France and has now spread to other countries.