You Better Fill Up On Gas Today

[Esau]

84.2 this morning on the rez.

[timouse]

i stopped for gas at the independent station outside of acton here just before the latest chaos started...as i drove past the esso station, i saw that they were at $1.01 per litre.

halfway through filling up, i noticed that i was paying $1.23 per litre! when i asked the attendant, he told me that when they had their last fill up, that's where the price point was. as an independent, they have to pay the wholesaler whatever the spot price is when their underground tank is filled. the corporate stations are able to adjust prices up & down and are reimbursed by their corporate masters. they have 20 000 l of gas to sell, and if they lower their price, they take it on the chin.

naturally, business has dropped off for them, as most folks dont realize how the wholesale world of gas works...and hux makes an excellent point, all levels of government are basically powerless to make a substantive change to the price of gas.

in an effort to avoid buying gas from companies that behave unethically (shell possibly whacking ken saro-wiwa, esso/exxon-mobil battling kyoto, etc) i've been forced to put my money where my mouth is

[onthejourney]

Thanks for your reply Hux. It was just something that I had heard and really just found it interesting but didn't take the time to research it. I realize that the gov't really has no control over how the oil wigs jack the prices but I guess (whether the numbers are right or not) I just hope that the extra money the gov't is taking in as gas prices rise will be put to good use.

The big oil boys really are to blame but I feel that it may somewhat of a last attempt to get as much money as they can before it all runs out, which I feel it is going to run out quite soon. Really, I think this can be taken or seen as more of a push to explore more sustainable ways, different methods of travel, working closer to home, different ways to heat etc. Basically a re-evaluation/wake-up call of how being so dependent on this one fossil fuel is going to end up in disaster at some point. I really don't feel like going on and on but I am sure the gist is there.

I don't see that the price of gas is going to go down, in fact, I predict it will continue to rise. Personally, I am trying to figure out what I can change. A friend of mine has a friend (isn't that always the way ) that took an old Volvo and converted it to take veggie oil (don't know if it is used or fresh). This guy went from one coast to the other and back again for $400! So there is something that can be looked into and apparently it is not that hard to convert a diesel to do this. I believe there are several websites about this.