Think Gas is High? Try Europe. Diesel fuel now costs over $11 per U.S. gallon

A truck driver makes a call during a blockade of the A40 road on May 27, 2008 in London.

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Strikes and blockades staged over the past three weeks by French fishermen spread this week to Spanish ports; Italy, Portugal, and Greece expect more of the same on Friday as mariners seek to force national governments to offset marine diesel prices, which have shot up by 40% since January. Single boat owners and entire trawler fleets face a real threat of bankruptcy. Matters are no better on land. On Tuesday, hundreds of British truck drivers in London and Cardiff brought traffic to a crawl in a campaign to get their government to lower taxes on diesel fuel, which now costs over $11 per U.S. gallon (3.8 liters). Other businesses owners who rely heavily on gas use — including farmers, ambulance and taxi drivers, and private bus companies — have joined the protest movement or are preparing to do so.

Before I had any European friends to clue me in, I knew Europe was paying  3 or 4 times what the USA was/is, depending. I'm a news junkie. And so were and are my parents. Evening news with dinner.
As a Canadian living in the States much of my life (but with deep roots to the North) when we drove to Canada we always made a fuss about filling the tank before the border as most of Canada too has had higher petrol prices than the USA---for years and years.

The reason this was how it was I felt, was the USA wielded enough power that we obtained our "gas" relatively cheaply.
Europe felt the pinch we are feeling two decades or more ago so there's really no room for the Americans to do a lot of "poor me-ing." However the suddenness which the recent prices have accelerated upward is quite hard to deal with--for a lot of people in a lot of places.

We really have to get with the program.
Honestly, no matter "what" we end up driving it's going to have to be less. And for what I'm hearing with enough investment, there already is a working cellulose-based ethanol that is not corn-based and takes only 1/10 the energy to manufacture as corn-based ethanol.

I do not drive a fuel-efficient car (yet) but I don't drive to work, either. (It is a very small car, however. I hate SUV's in suburbia.) My spouse rides his bike to work, takes the car if he has errands as it's less than a mile to [headquarters of major US company, Schaumburg, IL ]. I know we are lucky and I'm concerned about those that aren't and frankly, for us with everything being affected by the fuel problem (with a notable global select few exempt from cost and therefore worry) about "When will the petroleum-based fuel prices stop rising?"