Gas Pricing Boosting Blood Pressure

Monday, August 08, 2005 04:01 AM

If you have been wondering just where we rank in the national standings for prices at the gas pumps, here's a bit of info; The survey by M.J. Ervin was not posted in time to reflect our prices last week, suffice to say, we will be in the running to be leaders of the pack for the next survey.

Now lets consider this, if the price of gas has doubled from 30 to 60 bucks a barrel and you can refine about one half of that barrel of crude into gasoline, how come then the price for the stuff has increased by 200 % since that time?

By the way, regular gas last week was selling in Toronto at 94, while in nearby Ottawa it was 94.5. Now who do you think makes the biggest squeak when it comes to prices and who is sitting in Tthe nation;s capital with the ability to look at those prices?

In the USA this week in Florida, where they complain they pay the highest prices in all of the US, the price of regular gas was selling between $2.74 and $2.99 per Canadian gallon of gas. Georgia and New Jersey had prices of between $2.39 and
$2.87 for a Canadian gallon.

Lets not forget, the Federal Government adds the GST onto gas, every time the oil companies increase the price, the federal government gets a bigger slice, the province also dips into your tank to take its share

So in Canada its one big vicious circle and we now are paying $4.63 cents a gallon, which happens to be $2.24 cents more then they were paying in New Jersey. Just to rub salt into the wound, some of the gas they were burning in New Jersey, comes from Canada.

That, is one man's opinion.

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Posted on Monday, August 08, 2005 04:01 AM in Views by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: gypsy on August 8 2005 7:42 AM

I was always under the impression it took 4.55 litres to make a gallon, so our gas price is now over $4.95 a gallon for regular, and over $5.40 for premium. Still working on that metric conversion, but those are my calculations!!!!

Posted by: owl on August 8 2005 9:42 AM

Try this site .... you can plot three variables at the same time and use the units you want.

http://www.bcgasprices.com/retail_price_chart.aspx

based on that, the USA price is about 75% of the Canadian price.

here is a currency converter page

http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi

here is a volume measure conversion page

http://www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm

The current price of regular unleaded in New Jersey appears to be around US$2.35/US gallon

That equates to C$2.86 per us gallon at today's rate of about 82 cents US to the Canadian dollar.

Divide that by 3.785 litres per US gallon and one gets C$0.76 per litre ....

So, whether one uses first order calculations or the handy dandy graph, the result is the same .... the US price at the pump is 3/4 of the Canadian price ..... it has been less than the Canadian price for decades .....

An interesting aside, of course is that under NAFTA one is supposedly not allowed to subsidize industry .... industry uses gasoline for transporting some of its goods ... thus, it could be argued, the US is subsidizing its industry, including the people who work in those indutries and drive to work......

;-)

Posted by: owl on August 8 2005 9:52 AM

One other thing to complete the circle of comparing one thing to another regarding gasoline prices ... measure over time .....

Here is a graph from the USA which compares prices since 1970 in today's dollars (taking care of inflation) ... and it shows critical world events on the graph which may influence supply of oil from the point of view of production control and security of supply ....

http://zfacts.com/p/35.html

These things are a bit more complicated than us having a refinery in town and sitting in a small and captive marketplace ...

Posted by: gypsy on August 8 2005 12:18 PM

Thanks owl, . My calculations were not right-should have been $4.68 for regular and $5.00 for premium. Even rough figuring we knew we had to be hitting real close to that 5 bucks. The U S has always been a reason for the Canadians living close to the border to visit to purchase gas, some dairy products , turkey, chicken, eggs, etc. It is really surprising how they can sell for so much less, but then is it all controlled by "marketing boards" like a lot is in Canada??? I look at many of their grocery prices on T V advertisements, and have a problem figuring out why we are forced to pay so much more. We seem to take a lot of "hits" in so many areas. Do we really have it so good here????

Posted by: willy on August 8 2005 1:32 PM

Sunday gas was 99.9 in Vanderhoof. Even if gas prices are the same else where, buy gas after leaving PG and before returning. If everyone did that it might do something for gas prices here, worth a try.