The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) today released the August 2012 edition of the Monthly Motor Fuel Report, which found that the overall change nationwide was +0.2 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the report.

The report also noted that Americans pay the least in motor fuel tax. The average U.S. Motor Fuel Tax (average state and federal tax) is $0.40 for gasoline, and $0.46 diesel. In comparison, foreign tax rates are considerably higher (i.e. Japan in August 2012 was $3.21 and Italy was $4.90), according to the report. This might give more ammunition to increase the gas tax to fund the next highway bill. Like everyone else, I don’t want to pay more at the pump. However, the gas tax has not been increased in several years and each 1-cent increase in the federal gas tax generates about $1.8 billion in revenue, according to Joseph Giglio, a professor at Northeastern University who has written extensively about transportation financing, in a USA Today report. (And the gas tax alone is not enough to fund what we need in a highway bill.)

Highlights of the report also include the following:

• August gasoline/gasohol reported 11,955,661,580 gallons of use.
• August Diesel reported 3,280,232,424.
• Cumulative total for gasoline January 2012 to August 2012 was 91,127,207,427.