Haha, OK! Which Ontario community wants an oil refinery?
Oh, that's right: none. They think
wind turbines are bad. Ontarians would rather pay far higher gas prices than to have an oil refinery to decrease prices. We know this because
that is the reality.
Proximity to oil refineries affects oil prices to a significant degree. Oil prices in Northwestern Ontario are always the highest in the province because no where in the populated part of Canada is further from an oil refinery than we are. All of our gas is brought here by boat from Sarnia or rail from Edmonton and stored in tanks owned entirely by Petro-Canada. The price at which Petro-Canada sells this gas to every single station in our market (they have a monopoly) is the price we pay. We almost got a refinery but there was so much opposition that the company willing to invest here was virtually chased out of town. (That's right! A city with a dying economy, a 12% unemployment rate at the time,
chased away 500 jobs and lower gas prices because we didn't want a refinery!)
The same people that complain about the government interfering in things are popping up and saying "Hey! Government! Come interfere with a private enterprise's business model to benefit the people!!!" Honest to fucking God: Anyone who
ever advocates for government control of gas prices is no allowed to refer to themselves as capitalist ever again, because that kind of regulation is socialism. I am not arguing against it, I am just saying that if you want government to regulate gas prices for your benefit, you want socialism. It's that simple.
It is
the people who oppose
every practical solution that are the problem. The unwillingness to allow more refinery capacity closer to the market combined with the near total unwillingness to abandon gas powered transportation and the opposition to society moving away from fossil fuels is why gas prices are so high. It has nothing to do with corporate greed. It's consumer stupidity. We
are running out of oil, we've already run out of refinery capacity, and the market is so unwilling to adapt to this reality that they're advocating socialism while complaining about how bad it is.
And you know which party is the only one that agrees with your first post? It's the NDP. The socialists you hate! You agree with them. Every single person who thinks like you agrees with the NDP on this policy while decrying socialism even though
this is socialism.
This post doesn't even touch on the 6 week lag between when the oil is purchased at the price you see today and when that oil has been refined into gas and brought to a gas station. Do you think that happens instantly? Do you think gasoline just comes out of the ground, ready to go into your car?? That is like complaining that cereal is too expensive lately even though dextrose just got cheaper. Cereal companies haven't even ordered it at that price yet; how the fuck is it supposed to affect what was made two months ago??
This post is longer than I intended it to be.