Gas Pricing High Octane: One Man's Opinion

Monday, April 24, 2006 03:49 AM

-by Ben Meisner

Just who is getting it stuffed to them in the gas prices across Canada?

You can put a big blue flag right in the center of Prince George because regardless of what the wholesale gas price is, regardless of the fact that in the major cities they have additional taxes added on at the pumps, PG always seems to be right there at the top for gasoline gouging.

It is not the Husky refinery that has been nailing you.

The national average wholesale mark up is 15.1 cents a litre, while in Vancouver the wholesale mark up is 19 in Victoria 19.9. In Prince George the wholesale mark up is 17.3

Now lets look at the Retail markup.
In Vancouver the retail mark up is 3.6 cents a litre, the national average is 4.9 , and here in Prince George the retail mark up is 9.7, just under twice the national average.

Oh the gas companies need the money, look at Lee Raymond, the former chairman of Exxon. He got a $356,000,000 .00 dollar retirement package. Exxon earned $36 billion in its last fiscal year, ($44 billion Canadian) so whoever is the Chairman of the Board at Petro Can should be receiving a hefty bonus if for no other reason than being able to be the first one out of the gate in almost every single instance when the price has gone up in P.G.

The US produces about 3% of the world's fossil fuels and consumes about 25% of the total supply in the world.

Funny as it may seem we, (at least I thought we did) owned the Oil sands. I wonder what would happen if we tagged the US with a countervailing duty saying they are gouging the Canadian public with their gas prices and using that tariff to offset the price in Canada? Iwonder what would happen?

Well for certain the price of gas would come down in Ottawa, as for us, out of sight out of mind….

I’m Meisner and that is one man's opinion.

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Posted on Monday, April 24, 2006 03:49 AM in Views by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: acrider54 on April 24 2006 7:31 AM

We in Canada or BC for that matter own nothing anymore. Our provincial and federal governments are selling off all of our assets like BC Hydro piece by piece, pipelines and land the ROW's use. We are and will be the peons of the north as the U.S. gobbles up everything we have. Or used to have. Gas prices will rise even more as oil companies will use any excuse to raise the price and you and I will pay what ever they demand huge profits or not.

Posted by: diplomat on April 24 2006 11:24 AM

There are vast untapped resources of windpower, wavepower, tidal power and solar power! All of these are renewable and non-polluting!

Why haven't our know-it-all politicians done their job, the job they were elected to do?

Slash burning (!) should be totally outlawed and all the left-over wood fibre should be trucked to central distilling plants where wood alcohol is produced from it and sold as fuel additive for gasoline!

We already have the technologies and the need has been established for a long time.

It is the vested interests of the oil barons and the moronic attitude of a certain president and prime minister (who don't support the Kyoto agreement) who stand in the way of real progress.

The less fossil fuels we use the better for the Earth's climate and the air we breathe, so if higher gas prices discourage consumption it may be just what is needed in the long run.

Kyoto and compliance with it are front and center news in Europe where massive efforts are being made by industries and citizens everywhere to "get with it."

Posted by: Palopu on April 24 2006 10:18 PM

Look around town on any given day and you will see thousands of cars driving willy nilly to and fro with no real destination.

60% of all gas burned in North America is for recreational purposes. In other words **wasted**
(a) Drive downtown
(b) Drive to Mall
(3) Drive to Tim Hortons for a Coffee (Maybe 2 or 3 times per day.
(4) Go for a drive.(Just for fun)

The list goes on. I agree that the Price of Gas is to high and that the Oil Companys are gouging us, along with a lot of other Companys, however as long as we just sit back and **Whine** nothing will happen. As I have said before we have to isolate One Company and not buy their gas. This will give them the choice of either going broke or lowering their prices.

This is a very simple solution to the problem and would be very effective, the only problem is that you cannot get anyone to do it. Mainly because they are two busy either burning up their gas, or complaining.

I wouldnt like to be working for Minimum wage on 20 hours a week, or on a limited old age or other pension and have to pay these prices. Those are the people who have a legitimate complaint.

Posted by: Percy on April 28 2006 10:21 PM

So, what are you willing to do? Sell one car? Walk to work? Car Pool? Turn down your thermostat? Turn off those extra lights? Recycle? Quit buying those gas guzzling 4 wheel drive/all wheel drive SUV's?

I would prefer to see everyone quit belly aching about the cost of fuel and personally do something about it. The only wind power I've seen used so far is from gapping cake holes. Percy