If enough people join this effort/strategy it may actually stir some gas companies from their price gouging slumber.

http://www.boycottgas.ca/

   

I like the idea, but these never seem to get off the ground. I wish we could punish those price gouging bastards.

   

It's the reality of a oligarchic market, which is an artefact of the high entry costs for the oil production business. Fortuantely, other options are available...

   

When did you get a bike?

   

But I take the bus...

And besides prices are lower now than they were as a proportion of average income so stop crying about it.

   

   

The bike was nothing. It's the beans that cost. And wiht the methane, it's not exactly greenhouse gas neutral.

   

If the beans are as old as the pants, the methane production is suspect.

   

It'll never work and here's why:

1. Kyoto. You can't call for a carbon tax on fossil fuel and not pay for it 100% at the pump or metre.

2. Taxes. Governments tax a third or more of the cost of fuel and some of these are even taxes on taxes.

3. Environmetalists. Have been very effective at stopping competiton and preventing new refineries from being constructed over the last generation.

4. Supply. Fields are working harder to produce less. That means the shortfall is being made up by oilsands and instead of an energy to recovery ratio of 32:1 you are working on ratios as low as 1.5:1 which cost a lot more money to produce.

5. Apathy. Canadians are notoriously lethargic when it comes to standing up against these types of things. Forget insane taxes, look at something as simple as cell phones. In the US the prices for packaged air time are half ours thanks to our crazy laws that allow Telcos to exist virtually without competition. If you want to lower the price of gas find some investors and build your own refinery and give it away at cost.

You may not like the price but when you are buying a litre of gas for less then the cost of a litre of bottled water you are still living in the good ole days that your children or grandchildren will never be able to fathom.

   

Hmmm. Funny how the average income is related to the value adjusted for inflation, and inflation includes the rise of the price of gas at the pump. /musing to self . . .I wonder why it's proportional. . . .

   

I will support this when morons stop paying a buck fifty for a bottle of water they can get from the tap for 0.005 dollars. Until then, we, as a society, are to goddamned dumb to make this happen.

   

yah for sure, bottled water pissed me off, especialy in BC of all places! Where we have some of the best drinking water in the country. I think my hometown, Hope, BC was rated #1 or #2 in Canada.

   

He got it rammed right up his ass don't he

   

I don't see the point - even if the boycott works (which it usually doesn't), all that will happen is the prices will dip, people will go back to buying their gas regularly, and price will go back up

Unless you change your behaviour (eg, using public transportation, carpooling, etc etc, longterm), you're not going to be able to change the economy.

   

A boycott will only hurt the retailers and possibly get a few minimum wage employees laid off.

Gas prices are driven mostly by insufficient domestic refining capacity and high demand. Until our refining capacity is significantly increased or Canadians reduce fuel demand to 1970’s levels the price volatility will continue. Neither is likely to happen.

The best indicator of gas prices is the US Fuel Inventory Report released every Wednesday morning. That report will influence the direction of the price at the pump over the following week. When US fuel inventory is low our prices rise, when the inventory is in surplus our prices fall and when the inventory is stable our prices are stable.

A steady decline in the US fuel inventory over the past few weeks combined with a few serious ‘refinery incidents’, one in central Canada and one in Western Canada, are the main drivers for the recent increases in gas prices.