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There was a piece in the recent Sust-Mar digest that caused me some concern. It tried to make an economic case for boycotting Esso and Petro-Can, with the aim of holding down fuel prices. Notes of this type are making the rounds these days. I am disappointed that it found its way into Sust-Mar, as the argument it makes is fundamentally flawed. It would appear that conservation is not an option. The advocated approach of targeting specific gas stations has been around for a few years (at least), but doesn't work. Most of the gas stations are franchises who have distribution deals with specific fuel producers. The stations make almost no money on gas (but they do really well selling cigarettes and junk food). It is against the law for them to sell gas at less than cost - this is called predatory pricing. The most they could lower the price is about 2 cents in rural areas and less than a penny in the cities. Refineries, on the other hand have great profit margins right now. They are all running at almost 100%, and can sell to the highest bidder. President Bush ordered American refineries to postpone maintenance shutdowns to ensure that there was enough fuel oil for the winter. Those refineries have to shut down now for regular repairs and upgrades, and this has reduced the supply in the US, thus increasing the price. As for supporting only the independent gas stations - it can be really hard to find them. Once you exclude the four big ones: Esso (Exxon), Petro-Can, Shell, and Husky, there isn't much left. Those that do appear independent still have to get their gas from the same refineries as the big-name stations. So what to do? There doesn't appear to be any great increase in supply coming soon (refineries just don't have excess capacity), which means that the only real way to reduce prices is to USE LESS GAS. There is another more pro-active approach that elected representatives could take, namely to TRIPLE OIL & GAS PRICES. Yes, I mean increase prices. And put the money into developing environmentally friendly energy sources and environmental remedial action. Energy is a bargain at today's prices, and that is why we are ruining our planet by burning so much fossil fuel. We need a strong motivation to use less energy, or turn to cleaner energy, and the only way is through the pocketbook. Think for a minute about future Canadians and what we are leaving them. Thank you, Graham Smith -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca To submit a message to sust-mar, please send it to: mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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