Has the fossil fuel industry finally been fossilized?
How much time does the most important cog in our economic wheel have, and what are the options for consumers?
In other words, where’s the horse for this cart?
If the plan is to make gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel so expensive that using these commodities in our daily lives is cost prohibitive, then the powers that be are succeeding. It is obvious to me that the current federal leadership has little to no interest in the oil industry in this country.
I will not bore you with the list of cancelled pipelines and interminable regulations that have turned the 4th largest holder of crude reserves into just another country with leaders who refuse to, or cannot see, the huge potential in our country.
Current gasoline and diesel prices are a key irritant in today’s out of control inflation. Yet the carbon tax remains and will increase again on April Fool’s Day next year, and the year after that, and every year after that until it jumps from 11 cents per litre (cpl) as of today to 38 cpl by 2030.
Oh, and don’t forget to add the GST/HST, which in some cases will increase the increase by another 13%!
Wait. Don’t walk away! Because the magical Clean Fuel Standard will add another 13 to 16 cpl to gasoline and diesel prices by 2030 also, which is only eight years away.
The upstream portion of our oil industry, namely the oil sands, has been editorially criminalized for years now by environmental activists without a murmur of resistance from some of our leaders in Ottawa.
Now, it appears the downstream infrastructure may be under attack, which will lessen the consumer’s options to buy gasoline and diesel that they can’t afford in the first place.
The U.S. based environmental activists have now morphed into U.S. based investor activists with one even calling for a shakeup of Suncor – to the point where the sale of the company’s 1,500 services stations is now a distinct possibility.
Someone please explain to me why you would want to dump an asset whose downstream refining margin, the difference between the cost of crude and the wholesale price of gasoline for example, are now in cents per litre:
Vancouver – 69
Calgary – 54
Toronto – 48
Halifax – 47
In normal times, these margins would be lucky to reach 24 cpl.
It sure looks to me like someone is trying to flog a horse hauling a cash laden cart.
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