Has anyone noticed that the price of a litre of gas in Penticton is now 98.9 cents?
That’s while we here in the Cowichan Valley are still paying about $1.36 per litre (as of late February).
These price disparities in the price of gas in regions just a few hundred kilometres apart in B.C. are common within Canadian provinces, and that fact always has me scratching my head.
I’m not the only one because I’ve talked to people at the gas pumps when prices take dramatic hikes, which are a lot more common than dramatic downturns, and they are generally as confused and frustrated about it as I am.
It seems so arbitrary and there never seems to be one good solid reason for the price differences, leaving many to assume that the gas companies are just hiking the prices in some areas to maximize their profits at the expense of the average citizen, many of whom rely on their gas-guzzling vehicles for their daily activities.
On a few occasions, I’ve tried to get to the bottom of the whole issue and got in contact with spokespeople for the industry to explain it to me.
But I’ve always found at the end of these conversations that I was really no more enlightened than when I started.
Basically, I was told that one major reason is simply supply and demand, and that some terminals that supply specific areas are either shut down for repairs or just don’t have enough supply, which can cause gas prices to go up in some areas and not in others.
That makes sense, but one has to wonder why such a longstanding multi-billion dollar international industry can’t coordinate its infrastructure properly to allow for some degree of price stability, particularly in communities that are relatively close.
As for when gas prices go up dramatically across the board, no matter where you live, the industry often blames it on instability in major oil and gas producing regions around the world, leading to “speculation” that there could be fuel shortages sometime in the future, and they say the market is responding to those possible scenarios beforehand.
That is the one reason the industry gives for price hikes that I’m most uncomfortable with.
I’ve never heard of the price of orange juice going up because there are fears a hurricane may hit the orange groves in Florida.
In my experience, the price only goes up after the hurricane hits and the actual damage to the orange crops has been assessed.
I mean anyone can “speculate” what may happen in any circumstance, but it seems rather self-serving to me that gas companies can feel free to raise prices because, for example, there may be a chance Iran will attack the oil fields in Saudi Arabia.
People at the pumps typically tell me that the gas companies are gouging them each time the prices go through the roof, but I can’t help but notice they are still standing there filling their tanks while they complain about it.
That’s what the companies count on, and it appears they may be right that their customers will continue to pay the price for their precious petrol, regardless of what it is.
You’d like to think that there is something that consumers could do to take the companies to task, but it’s fact that we’re so addicted to the daily consumption of fossil fuels that most of us are at their mercy.
It may be time to get a pedal bike.
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
