Is The Price Of Gas Too High?
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I wanted to write about this for some time now. I often see American "complaining" that their price of gas is too high yet don't pay much for it compare to other countries even to us up north. Yes, I mean Canada.
Quebec City Gas prize
1 Liter of gas is $1.41CAD here in Quebec City. On average, we pay more than Montreal based on our version of the auto club(CAA). The price don't vary much even compare to them. The price will jump(up/down) by 5 cents here but by 10 cents in Montreal. Of course, they pay less than us when it happens thus the bigger increase. Here, we could have $1.413 per liter. Notice the 3. The price is that rounded.
Sorry I'm American and don't use liter.
Ok, so after conversion to US gallon(3.7854 liters) and since the US and CAD dollar are about the same value today ($1 CAD = $.9944 USD), I will use $1.40.
(1.40 * 3.7854)/1= $5.299/US gallon. In Europe, it even more.
Some US cities will pay about $4.50 but the US average is $4.11.
John Cow post
John Cow posted about The Evil Gas Empire that We MUST Stop!. So instead of replying in a comment there, I will used this post plus add a few things.
Yes, part of the price is too inflated for almost any reasons(geo politico tensions). Next, it will rise because someone farted on an island. Oh wait! farting could cause cancer too. 
PUMP Act: It won't do any long term positive effect if you get the price to $60 a barrel. Heck, it would increase the demand of gas thus people would buy gas hungry SUV again. At least now, people optimize more their transportation schedules. The good effect in the PUMP act is the price would again be based on offer and demand but America is not the only market and foreign oil companies may prefer to sell elsewhere too like China or India.
Regulation can be bad too
Price for a taxi here did not moved but the price of gas did. In a free market, they could had at least increase the rates since gas is a big part of their budget. It's the same with milk(here and USA). Why should farmers operate at a lost with fixed milk price? Regulator should act faster and move with the price of gas too(up or down).
Taxing the oil companies
Our Quebec Resources Minister talk about it but did not act on it. Anyway, the oil companies would just passed that to us.
Bio diesel
Stop making it is using good grains. We see an increased on food here too but the negative effect is more seen in third world countries where the budget for food in more than here. The ideal was good at first but other bio solutions are being done. Dr. Emmett Brown had the best solution since it was real recycling.
Conclusion
I had to travel for business for my employer thus I got my first car at 24. Yes, city buses was the main way I traveled before that. Since I was paid by the kilometer when on the road, I had to optimize my road trips. Now, I work for myself(no travel) but I still optimize by trips. It's a good habit I kept.
But like everyone, I hate paying too much for my gas and I do miss when I was paying $0.55/liter. Back then, I could order a $1 item from my computer distributer with free shipping. That was about 10-12 years ago.
Out of curiosity: How much are you paying per liter or US gallons and name the city/country?
Edit 2008-08-15: The is not $1.29/liter
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4 Comments on this post
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Aric Keith said:
Great idea. It’s interesting to me to hear other country’s prices. I filled up my delivery truck for 3.799 per gallon yesterday. It has actually gone down. We were right at 3.979 the other day, I was glad to have put off filling that truck up.
At our construction supply company, we have started optimising our deliveries and charging for them, where they used to be free. And we have cut back our semi-truck deliveries from one per day, to only select days of the week.
Another thing I have found to be interesting. I drive by a huge auto mall in a large town, everyday. Little gas miser cars are selling like donuts to cops, while the Hummer dealer on the lot, might as well be trying to sell Ferrari’s to an old farmer, with maybe four on his lot and one salesman. And I think he probably has a lot of time on his hands, like the Maytag repairman, if you get that commercial in Canada… almost funny.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:02 am -
Steve McGrath said:
Yes, the gas was lower here too but still higher than Montreal by $0.10-15/liter. The local TV station did a poll if people thought that there was some price fixing going on in the city and 83% said yes. Strangely, the price drop by $0.04/liter the morning after but still higher.
It’s a another way for your company to plan ahead and save on gas. Too bad for your clients but you are a business after all.
Last winter, we got record breaking snow fall: average of 300 cm vs 560+ cm. So, some snowplowing companies asked for an optional bonus payments from clients at the end of winter. Most burned their profit on gas and time and worked at a lost. Next year contracts will be change to asked extra money for every cm above the standard contract. It was a long winter.
Btw, we got the Maytag commercial too.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:03 am -
Frank C said:
What I’ve found is that the before tax price for gasoline is the same in most of the western world, roughly about $3.80 a gallon or $1 a liter. The rest of the price is all government taxation. Our taxes on gasoline here in the state of Georgia USA are among the lowest in the world and we’re paying around $3.91-$3.98 a gallon here this week.
Taxing oil companies will only cause them to pass their additional operating cost on to consumers.
The best short term solution I see is increasing ethanol production, preferably with something that’s home or community based. After that fuel cells that use natural gas, methyl hydrates, shale oil and other hydrocarbons. We won’t have a ‘Mr. Fusion’ anytime soon, at least not until inexpensive room temperature superconductors are invented.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:34 am -
Steve McGrath said:
We pay the barrel the same because it’s mostly bought on the New-York price.
Yes, taxes is a large part of the extra in the price. Some wanted to lower the taxes but it would be easy to oil companies to use that new margin.
Glad you noticed the Mr. Fusion. lol
July 26th, 2008 at 9:49 am
