Gas Prices

[Hollywoodladies.ca]

This was sent to me this morning. Apparently Esso and Petro Canada are also rated the "dirtirst" gas and are hardest on your car.......



>From a concerned Gas User
>
>I hear we are going to hit close to $1.00 a litre by the summer. Want
>gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united
>action. Here's an idea that makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy
>gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May!.
>The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't
>continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of
>an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of


this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.


>>
>>Please read it and join with us!
>>
>>By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about 69.9 cents a
>>litre is super cheap. Me too! It is currently 76.9 for regular unleaded in my
>>town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us
>>to think that the cost of a Litre of gas is CHEAP at 69.9, we need to take
>>aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace....
>>not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers
>>need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas
>>come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing THEIR gas!
>>And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? . Since we all rely on our
>>cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas
>>prices if we all act together to force a price war. Here's the idea:
>>
>>For the rest of this year, DON"T purchase ANY gasoline from the two
>>biggest companies (which now are PETRO CANADA & ESSO). If they are
>>not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they
>
>
reduce their


>>prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an
>>impact, we need to reach literally millions of ESSO and Petro Canada gas
>
>
buyers.


>>
>>It's really simple to do!!
>>
>>I am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you sends it to
>>at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten
>>more (300 x 10 = 3,000). and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth
>>generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers!
>>If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then
>>30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further,
>>you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!.
>>
>>Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.
>>
>>How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten
>>more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably
>>be contacted within the next 8 days!!!
>>
>>I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you?
>>
>>Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you,
>>please pass this message on.
>>
>>PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES AND KEEP THEM DOWN.
>>
>>THIS CAN REALLY WORK.
>>
>>YOU KNOW THEY LOVE HOLIDAYS AND SUMMER TRAVELERS.
>
Cheers!

Steph

 

[Bboy]

This just seems like too simple a solution. We have some armchair ecomomists on the board that I'd be interested in hearing their comments. They'd certainly have more of an idea around the complexities involved than I would. But I'd say what really needs to happen is the government needs to lower the gas tax and Opec needs to open the taps. Neither of which I see happening anytime soon.

 

[mr. x]

i do not think this will work, for a variety of reasons:

1. the oil that petrocan and esso use comes from many other companies, and not just from their own reserves - oil is still imported into eastern canada, while much oil and gas from the west goes to the US.

2. both petrocan and esso have refining and distribution operations, but in many cases the geographic distribution of refieneries across the countries means that any oil company will end up getting gas from the nearest refinery to where it is sold, evenif it comes from a major competitor. so even if you go to canadian tire to buy gas, the oil might still come from esso or petrocan, and it might have been refined by either esso or petrocan.

3. it is unlikely that enough people will be motivated enough to participate in such a boycott - most people are apathetic to such things and assume that boycotts are inefficitive. even with major issues like apartheid, it took years for people to take boycotts seriously, and even then, many people still bought products that came from south africa.

frankly, you would be better to lobby governments to take action on competition issues and making other changes to how the marketplace works - trudeau and chretien came up with the NEP, which had the idea of a "made-in-canada" price for oil as one of its goals, as well as canadian ownership of oil and energy companies... maybe some new interventionist energy policy is needed.

in any case, the government has done little to stop or prevent massive takevoers in the energy sector - our laws and enforcement of rules governing competition are a joke - just look at the big media companies, and how even the banks desires for mergers are still a possibility (a senate report came out that was in favour).

in short, i see the problem as being too little comptetion because of too few companies, combined with massive foreign control of our energy industry.

write a letter to your MP and get involved in politics - a boycott is useless.

 

[nato75]

Often we seem to see emails circulating in campaign to not buy gas on certain days or to not buy gas from specific sellers. Unfortunately, these protests don't work for many reasons: apathetic consumers, our lack of influence on these multinational corporations and the free market.

As consumers, we can do little to control supply, but we can maybe influence demand. However, that means reducing demand overall, in the long run, not just at one station for a small period of time.

I know it's easy to say but if you want to save money at the pump now - slow down on the highway, walk or cycle or take transportation when you can, and trade in that SUV for a more economical car if it's possible, for starters. It's a thought.

And then there's alternative energy...

 

[CyberGoth]

yes, alternative energy, hehe

I've always wanted a nuclear powered car.

 

[hamermill]

Even better it might make people who driver SUVs, min vans think twice.

I say bring the $1.50 per gallon on...

 

[nato75]

Re: Petro Canada

Petro-Canada began as a Crown corp in 1975. It was privatized 16 short years later by PM Brian Mulroney in 1991.


I'm not sure if this is still the case but even after privatization, the government continued to own some of the company (under 20%) but it was said they didn't control any day-to-day activities.

 

[The Finisher]

If you want to get the money back from rising gas prices then you should be buying the Canadian oil/gas producers.

Original average gas price: .699 cents/litre
Current average gas price: .799 cents/litre
A spread of 10 cents per litre = .10/0.699 = 14.30% increase.

Buy a junior oil/gas producer such as TKE. (on the TSE)
* Due your due diligence before buying and yes I have a vested interest in this stock among other oil producers.

Current price $2.87 per share.
Price 3 months ago: $2.40
A spread of $0.47 from $2.40 = 19.58% gain.

Guess who's winning the game?

The typical car owner will spend on average of $34.50 per week (No SUVs ---> based on 0.69 cents a litre/50 litres a week (or 24-25,000 kms/yr)= $1794 a year. Now if everybody budgets 0.80 cents per week then that translate to $5.05 per week or $262.60 a year. Everybody should adjust approximately 0.84 cents a litre (5% wiggle room per year) This means expect on average a cost of $42 per week or $2184 yr.
* $262.60 per year is the equivalent to 2 deluxe body slides at the massage parlour or 1 SP visit.
At 0.84 cents a litre this means a cost of $390 per year. (3 massage parlour visits or 3 half hour visits to incall Oasis.

Pity the SUVs or full range trucks that consumes $50-80 per week. I feel their pain.

No wonder everybody is so fed up!! We're being nickeled and dimed from our recreational pursuit!!

Fight back - Say HELL NO to LESS massage parlours and SP!!

The Finisher
Placards are being markered in : Higher gas prices = less rub/tugs!! Hell No!!

Cheers.

 

[YorkNorthGuy]

Re: re

Sheik.. It was Pierre who created Petro Canada... Who was it who privatized it?

Petro Canada is actually an acronym for

Pierre
Elliot
Trudeau
Rips
Off
Canada

 

[james t kirk]

Well I dont know about you guys but I've been boycotting petro can ever since Trudeau created it. I wont even allow my transport trucks to use them.

If you were running on Empty, and the only station on the horizon was a Petro Canada, you'd stop.

 

[TravellingGuy]

yes, alternative energy, hehe

I've always wanted a nuclear powered car.

I don't know about nuclear, but hybrid electrics are becoming more common and I've seen/heard/read about the new Hydrogen vehicles that GM is working on, FedEx is even using them in their fleet, very interesting considering you can take water to get the hydrogen from. Oil is depleting,we should be pursuing other fuel cells.

 

[dejavu]

Other alternatives to help during this oil crisis

Look for prices of petro in your area.

http://www.gaspricewatch.com

~dv

 

[CyberGoth]

theres this thing called "BIO-DIESEL"... it might be worth looking into for anyone who's got a truck fleet.

just a thought

 

[xarir]

¢69.9

Went to fill up a couple fo days ago and foind that gas prices have dropped to ¢69.9 per litre. And to think - just a few months ago they were running almost $1.00 a litre ...

 

[LoveThemGirls]

Gas is cheapest on Monday afternoons, 64.5 cents today.

 

[wollensak]

Principles

You guys that hate Petro Canada are probably filling up at Esso - the Nazi oil company. Exxon and IG Farben ( Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen slave labour) had joint ownership of each other during the war years, to prevent the US government from seizing IG Farben's US assets. Add the Exxon Valdiz to Esso's resume and you have one real peach of an oil company. Oh, forgot, you guys are capitalists. Nice to know you are so principled about not supporting "socialist" enterprises.

Oil prices are headed much lower now that Iraq is under US control. It'll take about 9 months, but then prices will freefall.
Not so for natural gas - the US still has to get a lot of that from Canada - so prices for this commodity will remain high.

 

[Master Muse]

Let's see. Gasoline (unleaded) was priced about $2.20 per gallon in Los Angeles 2 weeks ago, Today it is $1.90 where I live. I think thats about 45 cents a litre. You guys are doing something wrong up there. How about changing the socialists to capitalists.

Gasoline is less expensive than milk or bottled water. And so much of its price is false: taxes. Why bitch at the oil companies?

Vote Republican. Throw out the French signs; print 'em all in English. Win the Cup. Get an army.

Become Canada. Again.

 

[Trelew]

I like the idea, Steph, but it won't work. Why? Simple greedy Big Business combined with equally greedy politicians in thier back pocket. It is as simple as that.

 

[shack]

Let's see. Gasoline (unleaded) was priced about $2.20 per gallon in Los Angeles 2 weeks ago, Today it is $1.90 where I live. I think thats about 45 cents a litre. You guys are doing something wrong up there. How about changing the socialists to capitalists.

Gas here is $0.65 Cdn/ltr, which is $2.96Cdn/Imp gallon,which is $2.37Cdn/US gallon. which is around $1.60US/US gallon.

You guys are doing something wrong down there.

 

[Goober Mcfly]

Gasoline is less expensive than milk or bottled water. And so much of its price is false: taxes. Why bitch at the oil companies?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2984719.stm

Win the Cup.

We're working on it...