WASHINGTON – When you pull up to the pump to fill your tank, do you ever wonder where your gas money goes? If you think the gas station gets your bills, think again.
According to theUnion of Concerned Scientists (UCS), gas stations receive about 3 to 5 cents of profit from each gallon of gas they sell.
In fact, gas stations make more money off of the candy and soda sold inside the service stores than from the fuel sold outside.
The study says every time customers fill up at the pump, 66 percent of the money they spend goes directly to oil companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil or BP. Therefore, for every $50 spent at the pump, $33 goes to the coffers.
UCS also reports that drivers will spend almost as much filling up their car’s gas tank as they paid for the car itself.
ExxonMobil tells Wired that the UCS’s assessment of the money the company makes selling gas is misleading. They say Exxon made about 7 cents per gallon of gasoline sold in the last three months of 2012.
WTOP’s Veronica Robinson contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter.
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