And OPEC has a lot to do with how much you pay for gasoline. Right now, we are paying a lot more. The nationwide average price for a gallon is about three dollars and 38 cents. That's about 10 percent more than gas was a month ago. And you might be surprised to hear this: The filling station where you get gas doesn't make a lot of money off it. The biggest part of your dollar, 68 cents, go to crude oil. The price of that? Largely determined by OPEC. About 14 cents on the dollar go to taxes. Those include federal, state, and local taxes, which is why gas prices are different state to state. 10 cents are for refining; that's converting crude oil into gasoline that cars can use. And about eight pennies go for getting that gas from the refineries to your neighborhood convenience store. Advertising is factored in here too. Now, all this adds up to 100 cents, showing you clearly that the stores themselves don't make much from selling gas.