Are Gas Prices Being Manipulated?

Picture Taken July 2007

Anyone with a vehicle knows that the price for a litre of gas jumped to $1.45 this week which means the price has risen approximately 33% from when this picture was taken last year.

When you consider that the competition bureau in Quebec found gas companies were guilty of price fixing, of 11 companies charged 3 have plead guilty; it makes you wonder if Quebec is really all that unique. Look around Nanaimo, you will be hard pressed to find 1/10th of a cent per litre difference anywhere. Competition?

Does anyone know how big a role the market speculators and traders play in the final price you pay at the pumps? If gasoline is anything like electricity, when the traders get involved nothing but greed drives the prices with no thought of the cost to the general public. Remember those brown outs in California a few years ago? They disappeared with no increased supply when the traders were exposed.

When was the last time you saw anyone break down the pump price as to how much goes to the fuel company and how much goes in taxes? Are governments using gasoline as a method of collecting yet more taxes in 'stealth' mode?

If everyone tomorrow started to drive motorcycles do you really think the price of gasoline would go down?? Why wouldn't it just go up more to offset falling revenues?

So the next time you 'suck it up' at the pumps ask yourself if the price you are paying is an honest, market driven fair price, or are we all being gouged by big companies and big governments?

If you check todays gas price comparisions on the right hand column of this page you will see that once again Nanaimo seems to be subject to the typical price treatment we have come to expect. We are leading the parade again at $1.45 compared to Duncan at $1.39 and Quesnel at $1.31 and Vanvcouver at $1.33.

If there is genuine competition, for example being able to cross the border into the States, prices always seem to be held down. But in areas where there is no competition, like Nanaimo, the prices are all the same. You have to be very simple to not believe there is in fact price fixing going on here even if it is difficult to prove.