Da Gouge
Okay, let's talk about gas. No - not the stuff spewing out of Roger Clemens these days. I'm talking about the fuel you buy at the pumps. Buy is actually too harsh a word - they're practically giving the stuff away of late. (that would be sarcasm)
A year ago, crude oil was about 60 bucks a barrel. Now it's around 100 dollars. All the gas and oil we use in Canada comes from Canada...most of it these days from the tar sands in Alberta. When oil was 60 bucks, the folks out in the tar sands were making lots of money on a barrel of crude. Which means they are making a shitload of money now on that same barrel. (I'm assuming that their production costs haven't gone up 80% in the last 12 months) The price rises when the world price goes up - due to political unrest, war, weather (our gas skyrocketed because there was a hurricane in the Gulf Of Mexico? Oh - that makes perfect sense)
So why - exactly - are the producers obligated to gouge us at the pumps? The answer - they are required to sell oil to Canadians for the world market price.
Says who?
35% of the cost of a litre of gas is tax. Presently, that's roughly 40 cents on a litre. Apparently our government has lots of money these days. They just did us the incredible favour of lopping a percentage point off the GST. I know this because I saw that little finance guy who looks like a grown-up Beaver Cleaver babbling on about it on TV. As wonderful as that gesture was (I mist up even now) - why don't they do us a real service? Why don't we have a party - or a leader of a party - who will step forward and admit what's true? The oil companies - many of them foreign-owned - and the government - are getting stinking rich at the gas pumps. You ever wonder why we can buy Canadian gas in the States cheaper than we can buy it here? I do.
You wanna be the next prime minister of Canada? Tell the voters you'll freeze gas at 75 cents a litre. Everybody's still gonna get rich at that price. So if you see Stephan Dion (has anybody seen that guy lately?)...tell him. You can tell Jack Layton, but he rides a bike and he'll just look at you like a monkey looking at the inside of a watch. You can tell Puddn'Head Harper but he's already prime minister and he's busy freaking out over what he's gonna do when the Americans kick that clown George Dubya Bush to the curb and elect Barack Obama. Puddn'Head has never actually seen a black man in person before.
But I digress. This is the solution. Gas prices are the biggest scam in our country today. And we are still in large part a rural nation. We need our vehicles and we need fuel to drive them.
You are welcome.
If I could just figure out a way to tap into Roger Clemens - I could drive free for a year.
A year ago, crude oil was about 60 bucks a barrel. Now it's around 100 dollars. All the gas and oil we use in Canada comes from Canada...most of it these days from the tar sands in Alberta. When oil was 60 bucks, the folks out in the tar sands were making lots of money on a barrel of crude. Which means they are making a shitload of money now on that same barrel. (I'm assuming that their production costs haven't gone up 80% in the last 12 months) The price rises when the world price goes up - due to political unrest, war, weather (our gas skyrocketed because there was a hurricane in the Gulf Of Mexico? Oh - that makes perfect sense)
So why - exactly - are the producers obligated to gouge us at the pumps? The answer - they are required to sell oil to Canadians for the world market price.
Says who?
35% of the cost of a litre of gas is tax. Presently, that's roughly 40 cents on a litre. Apparently our government has lots of money these days. They just did us the incredible favour of lopping a percentage point off the GST. I know this because I saw that little finance guy who looks like a grown-up Beaver Cleaver babbling on about it on TV. As wonderful as that gesture was (I mist up even now) - why don't they do us a real service? Why don't we have a party - or a leader of a party - who will step forward and admit what's true? The oil companies - many of them foreign-owned - and the government - are getting stinking rich at the gas pumps. You ever wonder why we can buy Canadian gas in the States cheaper than we can buy it here? I do.
You wanna be the next prime minister of Canada? Tell the voters you'll freeze gas at 75 cents a litre. Everybody's still gonna get rich at that price. So if you see Stephan Dion (has anybody seen that guy lately?)...tell him. You can tell Jack Layton, but he rides a bike and he'll just look at you like a monkey looking at the inside of a watch. You can tell Puddn'Head Harper but he's already prime minister and he's busy freaking out over what he's gonna do when the Americans kick that clown George Dubya Bush to the curb and elect Barack Obama. Puddn'Head has never actually seen a black man in person before.
But I digress. This is the solution. Gas prices are the biggest scam in our country today. And we are still in large part a rural nation. We need our vehicles and we need fuel to drive them.
You are welcome.
If I could just figure out a way to tap into Roger Clemens - I could drive free for a year.
posted by Brad Smith at
9:07 AM
2 Comments
