Grrr...data collection/analysis plus student organizing in Alberta = mental health problems and addictions.
Rising gas prices are just another joyful reality this the fucking Fall.
The Calgary Herald captures people's stress in response to the spike in gas prices - '12-Cent Gasoline Spike Sparks Call for Relief':
Hurricane Ike's rush toward Gulf Coast refineries sent gasoline up a
dime a litre Friday throughout the city, a jolt that had even
free-market-loving Calgarians demanding federal party leaders control
fuel prices.
"They should put a cap on it, you know?" Ray Perrett grumbled as he waited in line to fill up at a Co-op station on 17th Avenue S.E. "They can't just put it up every time a storm blows through the Caribbean."
A buddy warned Perrett to rush to the nearest station Friday after his overnight grocery store shift, as word spread of spikes of 13 cents a litre in Ontario. Pump prices in Calgary went as high as $1.409 per litre.
With the economy facing choppy waters, voters are increasingly worried about their pocketbooks, be it from soaring fuel costs or food expenses.
...
People were calling for drastic action Friday and weren't in a mood to wait.
Eleven cars lined up at that southeast Co-op station. The price Friday morning was at $1.249, while the Esso a few blocks away had just changed its sign to $1.369.
"I do believe it's up to Mr. Harper to step in and to put a stop to it and lower our gas," retiree Darlene Smith said, eight cars behind the pumps. "Control the prices at the pump."
Of course, the Herald stays true to its role as corporate whore and solicits the opinion of single
neoliberal economist Mike Percy who, incidentally, is on the board for Epcor - which operates one of the province's largest-emitting coal-fired power plants:
While pocketbook issues have become major campaign issues, University of Alberta economist Mike Percy said Canada doesn't need a ruling party that messes in such private-sector matters.
Indeed, we would not want the government messing in "private" matters such as the environment and welfare of citizens. Of course,in spite of all the free-market rhetoric, the corporations welcome government interference when it suits them. In 'Albertans missing out on the benefit of soaring oil prices', Diana Gibson and David Thompson explain that a royalty cap ensures firms aren't paying top dollar for our natural resource:
Oil prices didn't always used to make headlines, but they have now quadrupled in the last four years and doubled since just last summer.
In fact, prices have been increasing so fast that it's hard to find decent graphs showing oil prices over the long term.
Oh, there are many price graphs. But most are terribly out of date. Many were produced prior to March, when oil cruised past the $100/barrel "psychological barrier."
Remember that barrier?
No doubt oil prices will fluctuate in the future. They will go down. And then up, and much higher than they are today. Growing demand and a limited global supply will see to that. It's not a question of if, but when.
What will happen with Alberta's royalties when oil is much more expensive?
Well, it appears that the government's new royalty framework, published last October and not yet in effect, is already well out of date.
When it adopted the new framework, the government said it was "fundamental and necessary change to current royalty structures. It creates a system that is more sensitive to market value ... ."
What does "sensitive to market value" mean? It means royalty rates rise when oil prices rise.
However, the current cap maxes out royalty rates when prices reached $30 per barrel, and last October oil was hovering around $80 to $90 per barrel.
As the government's own royalty review panel said, the $30 cap is "so low that royalty rates are no longer sensitive to market conditions. They do not rise or fall with price changes because prices are consistently above the caps."
The government's new framework will raise the rate cap to $120 per barrel in order to "ensure" royalties were sensitive to price. The document repeats the price sensitivity mantra no less than 12 times in 19 pages.
Of course, oil is now $130 per barrel. Or maybe near $140. Depends on the day. Anyway, we're already above the cap, and thus the new rate would be completely insensitive to new higher price.
Note the "would be." The greater irony is that the new cap doesn't take effect until January of next year. Right now the cap is still only $30 per barrel.
And for natural gas, the same problem will likely emerge.
Gas has soared by 50 per cent in the last five months to $11.60/GJ. The new $16.59/GJ rate cap may well be of date before it kicks in.
Economist Pedro van Meurs, who has regularly worked with the energy industry and government, told the Calgary Herald this spring: "They are not capturing the proper economic rent ... You leave a bundle (of money) on the table. It is just unbelievable."
That money doesn't stay on the table for very long; it seems energy multinationals break earnings records every year now. And the majority of company revenues in the Canadian energy extraction sector are controlled outside of Canada.
It seems the government has realized that the $120 new royalty rate cap may not be such a good idea.
In late April, when oil was approaching the $120 cap, Energy Minister Mel Knight was facing heat from MLAs on both sides of the legislature.
He said: "If oil is above $120 a barrel and stays above $120 a barrel for an extended period of time, then the province may have to take action to ensure that Albertans continue to receive their optimum value."
So what to do -- raise the cap to a higher price? Well, if a cap is a bad idea at $120, will it be a good idea at $150? How about when oil passes $180? Or $200, as many economists now predict?
Short answer: no. A royalty rate cap is a bad idea, at any price. Period.
Let's get back to basics. The people of Alberta own the resource, and we should be getting top dollar when we sell it. Not a "fair share," not a "balanced" deal, but top dollar. That's how owners think.
And if we can sell at a higher rate when the price goes up, then we should do so. Can you imagine any corporation consistently selling at less than full price? If it did, the shareholders would fire the directors, and rightly so.
The provincial government owes it to the people of Alberta to sell our natural capital at the best rate it can.
The government needs to maximize royalties, so we can have savings for the future, when our energy resources dwindle. The first step is getting rid of the royalty rate cap.
The price of oil per barrel is currently around $91/barrel. It is amazing that those who would not have the government interfere in the "private" issue of citizen well-being, are quite happy to be protected from the market and, for the time being, continue to pay royalties on only $30/barrel.
WTF?
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