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Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: FluffyMcDeath on October 05, 2004, 08:38:22 PM
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What the ...
So our pump prices have been pretty volatile around Vancouver. One morning it's 79.5c / litre, by noon it's 98.5 !!! It's up and down all over.
But now someone added another wrinkle and I have no idea when it started. I've been riding my bike to and from work for a couple of months now (40 minutes each way ... phew!) but my wife pointed this out to me.
So, now you have the price on the usual big board (say 89.9) but they also have a sandwhich board type sign by the entrance that will say something like "Save 3.5 cents per litre", meaning whatever the advertised price on the sign is, the pump price is 3.5 cents per litre less.
This is INSANE!! Who thought of this? Now when you're driving down the street in search of gas you have to look at the big sign, slow down for the small sign, and then do maths before you can figure out who has the better price.
Oh, wait. That's probably what it is for. To cut down on the shopping around, to make it harder to figure out so that people get tired sooner and stop looking!
Does anyone else suffer from this crazy system?
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Does anyone else suffer from this crazy system?
No.
On the bright side:
By law all gas prices must be clearly visable and accurate from the road.
On the downside
Gas is currently between ~$1.95 and $2.50 a gallon in FL depending on location and grade fuel. It's expensive everywhere regardless where you go, doesn't much matter :pissed:
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@ red
So I see. (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2004-10-04-gas-prices_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA)
That's about 66.6c/l
Sounds like you're under-taxed!
BTW, you realize that Saudi Arabia has reduced the amount of oil they sell to the US and increased the amount they sell to China.
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Gas is currently between ~$1.95 and $2.50 a gallon in FL depending on location and grade fuel. It's expensive everywhere regardless where you go, doesn't much matter :pissed:
How much is a US Gallon? Here in Norway a metric litre of 95 octane unleaded is 10.50 NOK average! That's nearly $1.60! :-o
... so from my viewpoint, you're still getting away cheaply :-P
Oh....btw. gas is even more expensive in the UK
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Sounds like you're under-taxed!
No! It sounds like you are overtaxed!
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!
Morley wrote:
How much is a US Gallon? Here in Norway a metric litre of 95 octane unleaded is 10.50 NOK average! That's nearly $1.60! :-o
... so from my viewpoint, you're still getting away cheaply :-P
1 US gallon 1 liter = 4.7854118 liters
No, just more fairly. Also consider that the USA is a huge country, long distance travel is a necessity for many americans. Hell I live in one of the most booming areas of the country and I travel between 70 and 110 miles per day
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[rant]
Okay, over in the UK we pay £0.85 - £0.88 per litre for 95RON unleaded. 97 Octane is available at around £0.03 extra per litre.
Taxation on fuel has risen sharply since 1992 when the conservative government introduced the "Fuel Escalator" policy where duty on fuel is increased by 5% over and above inflation.
Labour jumped on the bandwagon in 1997 and stiffed the motorist for as much as possible, culminating in the popular Fuel Tax protests of September 2000 when the whole country ground to a halt because farmers, hauliers and ordinary folk blockaded refineries in protest.
Tony Blair and John Prescott were enjoying an Indian meal, only to be greeted by a mob chanting "Shame on you" upon leaving the restaurant. Clearly bewildered and having absolutely no clue as to why 90% of the British public was angry, Blair blamed the oil companies for profiteering, strangely forgetting that petrol prices in the UK are around 78% taxation. Prescott caused further controvery when his four litre Jaguar saloon was used to drive him 300 yards at a public engagement during the height of the protests.
The Blairite spin machine was rocked by the news that if a general election were to be called during September 2000, the Tory party would win with a massive landslide. Since then the spin machine has wound up a notch, with more car-unfriendly legislation being passed by the month.
In the UK, transport causes around 40% of pollution. A large amount, you might say but of this 40%, the car is only responsible for around 5% of emissions of CO2. Jet travel is by far the biggest polluter, yet doesn't attract anywhere near as much taxation. Meanwhile owners of diesel cars are sometimes subject to scrutineering to ensure that no-one's burning used vegetable oil and thus avoiding fuel duties...
Does the phrase "Cash Cow" spring to mind?
[/rant]
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300km and shorter air-routes with jet-planes should be prohibited by law....it's just plain crazy to do a 2 hour flight (including check-in and check-out) vs. a 3 hour drive. The difference in CO2 emissions is so huge it is difficult to understand.
my conclusion: good&fast roads = good enviromental strategy.
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my conclusion: good&fast roads = good enviromental strategy.
Unfortunately more good and fast roads would mean more shipping with trucks instead of by train. Which wouldn't be so good either for the environment. (and it would be annoying with more trucks slowing you down all the time when you're out driving. :-x )
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Bezzen wrote:
my conclusion: good&fast roads = good enviromental strategy.
Unfortunately more good and fast roads would mean more shipping with trucks instead of by train. Which wouldn't be so good either for the environment. (and it would be annoying with more trucks slowing you down all the time when you're out driving. :-x )
personal teleportation is the future, commuting is for the birds.
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Government policy on everything:
When in doubt, tax it!
So if your government isn´t trying to raise taxes at every possible moment then they aren´t just incompetent(which is expected) but insane.
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Dan wrote:
Government policy on everything:
When in doubt, tax it!
So if your government isn´t trying to raise taxes at every possible moment then they aren´t just incompetent(which is expected) but insane.
So true, it sums up our Labour government who must spend all hours of the day looking for things to tax. We have very high duties on tobacco and alcohol and employ hundreds of people in trying to prevent British citizens going abroad and buying the stuff duty free. A case is going through the European Courts right now, where Customs and Excise are having to explain why they're being so heavy handed.
Problem is, sooner or later they'll move onto something else. The car is a godsend to the treasury, it's unclean, causes congestion and in the wrong hands will kill people so they demonise it in the media and then extract as much tax out of car users as they can.
In Britain now it's automatically the driver's fault if a bicycle collides with a car, regardless of circumstances. Violent crime, drink/drug driving is on the increase but the authorities will relentlessly pursue anyone caught exceeding speed limits - the only area of British law where you're guilty until proven innocent.
Once everyone stops driving, they'll move onto something else and tax the hell out of that.
Of course, we're all intelligent enough to realise that death and taxes are the only certainties in life, but I wish we had more say in how our taxes are spent.
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Oil prices is a pain in the arse. I've made two researches on the Oil Industry and this is a big game.
Petrol used to be dead cheap over here (Greece) with prices ranging from 0.65 Euros to 0.75. Now it is 0.85-0.90. Apparently, the petrol we get is from the North Sea that is considered the best in quality in the world.
So, the oil prices are determined by several factors mainly from but certainly, one of the main reasons is the supply and demand.
Note that the Iraqi production that is in the top 5 oil producing countries has almost ceased which leads to less production=> higher costs. The Saudis expressed their difficulty to increase oil production and the Russians are basically f***ed up.
So, who gains from that? Oil Companies. My first research was when the oil prices were as low as 9$/br and many independed companies had to cease operation because ROI was going deep down the {bleep}hole.
The solution would have been to stop using cars and use public transportation/bicycles/walk. There is heating of course, but there are alternative ways to get heated. Even electricity costs less to me for heating now.
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Hi
In some Asian countries, the price of gasoline is only US$ 20 cents.
The price of biodiesel is US$ 40 cents. Perhaps in the future, someone will build superconductor undersea cable for sending electric power over logn distance.
There is also a recent innovation on getting energy from the bottom of the sea.
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The researchers found that the electrical potential of sediment on the sea floor differs from the electrical potential of the surrounding salt water, according to Leonard Tender, a co-author of the study from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Collecting power from that difference could supply energy for fuel cells for self-sustaining oceanographic equipment, he said.
Organic matter in sediment on the ocean floor ordinarily releases energy as it decays. In shallow waters (less than 1,000 meters, or 3,280 feet), that energy is concentrated just below the ocean floor. Energy for the fuel cell - like the voltage between opposite poles of a battery - comes from a reaction involving chemicals released from the buried sediment and the oxygen, according to Clare Reimers, a co-author of the paper from Oregon State University in Corvallis.
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The biggest unknown — and the one with the greatest potential impact — is the release of methane from a warming sea floor. The amount of methane in the sea floor is thought to be greater than that of all hydrocarbon gases stored in reservoirs on land. In fact, it has been claimed that “methane-laced ice crystals in the seafloor store more energy than all the world's fossil fuel reserves combined” (Erwin Suess, Scientific American, Nov 1999). The icy storage is within a compound called “methane clathrate”, also called “methane hydrate” (See glossary for more on gas hydrates). Methane hydrates form within smelly mud at depths of several hundred meters within water near freezing temperature below high-productivity regions in the oceans. They are unstable when warmed or depressurized and quickly begin to disintegrate when brought up from the seafloor. The importance of methane hydrates only emerged in the last twenty years or so. Their abundance suggests they may be a new untapped source of natural gas. Natural gas is relatively benign in terms of producing pollutants since methane has only consists one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, and burning it produces more water than carbon dioxide.
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redrumloa wrote:
!
Morley wrote:
How much is a US Gallon? Here in Norway a metric litre of 95 octane unleaded is 10.50 NOK average! That's nearly $1.60! :-o
... so from my viewpoint, you're still getting away cheaply :-P
1 US gallon 1 liter = 4.7854118 liters
No, just more fairly. Also consider that the USA is a huge country, long distance travel is a necessity for many americans. Hell I live in one of the most booming areas of the country and I travel between 70 and 110 miles per day
Well, with Denmark as an exception, the Scandinavian countires definitely aren't small. Travelling 100-150 km. to work every day isn't rare here either. Especially in the more lightly populated areas. Still we pay the equivalent of 5$ per US. gallon.
Then on the other hand - we are almost taxed to death! :-D