$110 Crude Goodbye for Man Who Said Gas Costs $10.07 a Gallon

Crude oil hit $110 today and it was an ironic farewell to Milton Copulos, late of the National Defense Council Foundation, who led a campaign to promote the "true" costs of gasoline over the past few years. I spoke with Milt in January and he gave me his latest estimate: We pay an extra $10.07 for every gallon we buy.

First, let me say that I never quite knew whether to trust his numbers -- after all, there really aren't any good numbers for the externalities of gas. But I found his background -- in defense,  the Heritage Foundation, and then alternative fuels -- intriguing, provocative and a good starting place for trying to figure out how much a gallon of gas really costs us. (Milt also offered a heck of an interview, ranging through housing stock in China to military plans to turn garbage into fuel, to his children, his wife, with time for a short primer on flash pyrolosis.)

Here's how he broke it the cost of of a gallon of gas:

• Asthma treatment: $.51 per gallon
• Environmental pollution: $1.21
• Oil supply disruptions: $1.34
• Defense: $1.39
• Total economic costs including employment and investment: $5.19
• Government revenues: $.43

According to his numbers, oil's total cost to the American economy was around $300 billion in 2003, rising to $825 billion by 2006 and $995 billion by last year. He said he was working on another paper, "which pinpoints when the situation becomes critical."  I wish I'd gotten to read it -- and I'll miss the visceral shock of seeing Milt's next set of numbers.