Consumers are being gouged at the gas pump
I am sure that most people know that we are being price-gouged for gas to a huge degree.
I recently read some very enlightening articles by knowledgeable people and have done some research of my own that really shows how all the excuses the oil companies are giving us for escalating gas prices are totally misleading and are, in fact, lies.
The main reason we are told for the recent price hikes is the old and false supply/demand argument.
We get our gas from the Parkland refinery in Burnaby and while it is true it shut down for maintenance for a short time, there was no interruption to our gas supply simply because it was able to stockpile a large inventory of refined products. Parkland’s event manager, Gord Bruce, has even publicly stated, and I quote, “no supply shortfalls are anticipated during shutdown.” I think we can finally put to rest the supply problem myth. It should be obvious that there is no shortage of gas because we have never seen a station run out or been forced into gas rationing.
I was very surprised to learn that British Columbia actually exports large amounts of gas to the U.S. which its citizens can buy much cheaper than we can here. Somehow this doesn’t seem quite fair. Not only do we not have a shortage of gas here, it would seem we actually have an oversupply or glut. Actually, there is a somewhat complicated mutual exchange of petroleum products between B.C. and Washington State, but by far more product flows south.
There is another problem with gas prices which I find to be totally counterintuitive and illogical. When demand for fuel increases in the summer months we inevitably see an increase in gas prices. It seems quite obvious to me that if the oil companies are selling more gas they are making more money, so why a price increase? The world greed comes to mind.
I have what could be considered a radical idea that our governments should take action to protect its citizens from this type of consumer abuse. However, as gas is taxed as a percentage of price there is very little incentive for government intervention.
High fuel prices affect not just people who drive, but all the things we buy that have to be transported will increase in price.
Unless we as consumers change our apathetic mentality and start making some demands on our governments we will continue to pay the highest gas prices in North America.
K. Beaumont
Duncan
