The Federal Government should have a cap on how much they can make in taxes on gasoline and diesel. As an example once gas exceeds 90 cents per litre the Federal tax should be decreased to ensure that they will not make anymore money through higher gas prices.

With a cap in place this would give the Government some wiggle room to pressure the oil companies to reduce prices.

As long as the Government continues to make huge profits by the higher prices, they are complicate in this scam.

Its time Harper got involved is this fiasco.

I read recently that at least 1/4 the cost of a barrel is speculation by hedge funds and futures markets. Free enterprise at its best.

Only part of a barrel of crude is converted into gasoline and diesel. There are about 8 major groups of products that are derived through the distillation and cracking processes from the crude oil.

Kerosene, fuel oil and lubricating oils are just some.

It's o.k. though to use the above rough estimates of the writer to get an idea about what is going on.

Since Bush started his presidency crude has tripled or even quadrupled in price.

So much for getting another source of virtually free or very cheap oil. Nice going.

diplomat I think you missed the point on the price of gas, or at least the profit being made by the oil industry and the rip off on taxes the government takes

Hedge funds and futures markets have nothing to do with free enterprise, but rather they are more a tool of the free money manipulation through finance speculation of bankers that engineer fake markets for free money that is nothing more than a ponzi scheme paid for by you and me when the bad bets in the casino market are passed down the line to the pion at the bottom,while the good bets got striaight to someone elses pockets.

You are right Seamutt however in that derivatives are used to drive the price of crude based on computer models and fake asset rights, but that is the work of not capitalism, especially not free enterprise (complete opposite), and not anything else other than fraudulent market manipulation by special banking interests that use fractional banking as their basis to create a fixed manipulative systems that through time (just like a casino) allocates all the economies capital to their eventual corporate monopoly.

Free enterprise would be in a situation where energy was regulated (not based on global markets for domestic consumption, and capped profits from both government and industry)... rather than manipulated by fake market forces based on fake paper and computer trading models. Free enterprise would be affordable energy that is not used as an extortionist method to tax people for ill gotten profits, but rather a situation of energy that is affordable and used to grow equality of economic possibilities that derive from affordable energy.

Capitalism you could blame to an extend especially the drive for monopoly capitalism (shared blame with bankers), but this is in no way a problem of free enterprise IMO. Free enterprise (capitalist or socialist) is the solution I think.

oldmutt, I probably missed some point that is important to you but I was simply trying to say that a barrel of crude is made into many products, some of which sell for less than $1.289 a liter. But some sell for way more than $1.289 a liter, like Mobil One synthetic oil which sells for around $7.00 a liter.

Of course the oil companies make huge profits and the government rakes in big windfall taxes!

These taxes are supposed to be used for road and infrastructure building yet we are still driving on inadequate two lane highways which are cracked and have longitudinal ruts, potholes and killer curves.

I could swallow the high gasoline prices a lot easier if at least we would have proper highways as a result.

Diplomat
Synthetic oil is not made from crude oil.

Yes, you are correct. Although some synthetic crude oil and synthetic fuels are indeed made in the following manner from the oil sands:

"Another form of synthetic oil is that produced at Syncrude sands plant in Alberta, Canada. This huge facility removes highly viscous bitumen from oil sands mined nearby, and uses a variety of processes of hydrogenation to turn it into high-quality synthetic crude oil. The Syncrude plant supplies about 14% of Canada's petroleum output. A similar plant is the smaller nearby facility owned by Suncor."