The price of gasoline

Gas prices hit the $1.00 per liter mark up here a couple of weeks ago. With the current exchange rate, that's just above $3 US per gallon. Several of the stations are too cheap to buy new signs, and the signs they have won't display the extra digit. They either put up 10.2 or 02.1 and expected people to understand that it meant 102.1 cents per liter. I figured if they're too cheap to spring for a new sign, then they should give the gas to us for 2.1 cents. I think the poor guy working there had heard that only about eight hundred times that day, as he didn't look very amused when I suggested it :-) .

But wait, it gets worse. This morning, before I even opened my eyes, the alarm on my stereo turned on. They were talking about gas prices. I was awakened by the news that the price jumped from $1.00 to $1.20 per liter OVERNIGHT!!! This is insane.

The stations all have friendly little stickers on their pumps telling us all about the evil taxes we're paying on the fuel we're buying. It's all a very good point, but it's also a thinly disguised propaganda technique designed to divert anger away from the oil companies and towards the government. I hate the extreme taxes as much as anyone, but let me tell you something: gas tax sure as hell did not increase 20% last night.

I really feel for the guys over in Europe, they're getting gouged much worse than we are. Fortunately they have trains and buses that work for them. I wish we had the kind of public transportation infrastructure where I could actually put it to practical use. I figured it out once, it would take me four buses, one train, and about two and a half hours to replace my 25 minute commute. Do the words "not an option" mean anything to these people? The public transportation system is designed to cater to anyone who works right in the core of downtown Toronto, anyone else is SOL. And then the idiot politicians in charge of it get on the news and whine and moan about how nobody uses it. It couldn't possibly be because THE SYSTEM SUCKS, now could it???

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the situation. I seriously don't think I can afford to shell out $1.20 per liter for gasoline just to drive to work every day. That's like $75 every week. I'm looking at either carpooling, or trading the Dakota for some fuel efficient piece of crap tinfoil car. I really don't want to get rid of this truck. I have a certain emotional attachment to it, which I know is irrational, but there it is. Norah and I met because of our two '95 Dakotas, and since hers was totalled, this is the only one we have left. Besides, I feel much safer driving something made in Detroit out of steel than I would driving something made in Korea out of recycled Coke cans.

Something has to give somewhere, I'm just not sure where. The small amount of good news is that by the time I came home from work, most stations had gone back down to $1.045 per liter. Was the $1.20 thing just psychological warfare designed to make us feel good about paying $1.00?

Here's some more information for you to consider.

The Propaganda:
These are the stations I deal with locally:
Petro-Canada's helpful guide to understanding gas prices
All about Shell's gasoline prices
Esso's information about gasoline pricing

The Reality:
ABC News: Record Prices Mean Record Profits for Oil Companies

I'm sure I'll be able to find more, but it's getting late and I'm getting tired of searching.