fuel prices!

[cowman]

Apparently all fuel prices are on the rise. On the news last night they said gasoline took a 15 cent a liter jump yesterday in Vancouver! Of course this translates into more than just what it costs to fill up the car, as just about everything you buy will have to go up to pay for the added transportation costs! Most companies can just pass the cost down the line to the consumer...unfortunately it doesn't work that way for farmers.
Some people will complain about fuel prices and try to economize as much as possible but in reality most won't! They will just consider it the cost of living and go about their way of buying big gas guzzlers and driving as much as ever...and yet will belly ache like hell if bread rises a couple of cents a loaf!
The oil and gas business is doing extremely well. There is a major push to go back and reopen old wells that were shut in because they were uneconomical. On top of that the extensive pipeline systems being built for unconventional gas gives borderline production wells an opportunity to be exploited.
Unfortunately most of this added gas production goes south to fuel the Americans...as well as most of the profits!

[charliep]

cowman, farmers, seniors on fixed incomes and lower income families and individuals are having a tough time just getting by.
Increased power costs, fuel costs and just about all necessities are increasing all the time.
You are entirely correct when you say that the costs will be and are being passed down to the consumer, with the exception of farmers who cannot pass their costs down !

[WoolyBear]

Well I guess its time for all you Albertans to unstuff those socks under your beds and start spending your Surface Rights and Lease monies that these oil companies are paying you. When y'all come east to SK and MB you drive on our roads at 115 kph, and I'm tired of getting the bird when they have to pass us (doing the limit) with their heavy SUV, and 1T duallies.

Wake up and smell the H2S, thats whats running your province.

[WoolyBear]

In some instances surface lease income has kept farms going over the past two years. Not much of it left in the sock under the matress !!!

[grassfarmer]

Prices are getting up but you still enjoy a cheap fuel policy in Canada.
Current UK prices equate to $1.93/ litre for gas, $2.00/ litre for regular diesel and $1.00/litre for red (ag) diesel.
Only this last category gives farmers a reduction and it is strictly limited to farm tractors.
It's time North America woke up and realised the damage they are doing to the earth with their ridiculous fuel wasting practises.

[cakadu]

Amen to that grassfarmer. I actually had a land agent tell me that all of this oil and gas exploration was being done for my benefit and because of my demands. I couldn't believe that she had the nerve to tell me that. I cannot and will not ever be able to justify one of those SUV's - first and foremost because of the cost of one of them. There is something that just doesn't sit right with me with respect to paying $40K, 50K or even more for a vehicle. You get the same view of the road no matter how much you pay.

Many of the people that own these SUV's wouldn't drive them in conditions that require having them anyway. How many people that own them even leave the city, let alone go out to 4x4 or get them muddy? (The damage they are causing while in the West country etc. is another matter entirely and should be discussed in another thread.) There is one fellow in particular that I know of that drives a Hummer in Red Deer and the last thing it would see it driving out of the city - it is all for status and nothing more.

There are trade-offs with a smaller, more fuel economy car and I struggle with those, but it seems that the fuel economy is going to win out - there just doesn't seem to be any real alternative.

What concerns me most is that we are taking no long-term view to what we are doing - it is ALL for short-term gain.

[WoolyBear]

Right on Cakadu!

There are so many people in the oil industry taking advantage to the high oil prices to exploit the wealth of the land. There is NO long term planning anywhere that I can see.

Out east here, its sounding more and more difficult for business to find employees because of the ridiculus salaries that the oil patch is claiming to offer. Like really..... why is a kid out of highschool worth $12 or much more to do manual labour? Farmers certainly can't afford to keep their own kids home to help anymore.

I really wonder what Mr Klien would do if the oil industry ground to a halt like it has so many times in the past? There will be lots of young people trying hard to live like they did when they are on the dole......

As far as world prices go........ isn't most of the difference between us, the USA and the UK simply a difference in the taxes?

[grassfarmer]

I believe the UK taxes are 70% on gas, around 50% on diesel and only around 6% on farm diesel. I don't know how that compares with other countries.

[grassfarmer]

I do own a fairly large SUV. I drove many miles this past winter with it in 4WD. I plowed snow up past the running boards on the county road on more than one occasion. I don't like the fact that it uses more petrol than my former vehicle but I do like the security that having a vehicle that can cope with any kind of Alberta winter driving provides.
How much fuel a vehicle uses is dependent on the way it is driven. I am willing to bet that a lot of the smaller type cars that pull up beside me at stop lights and burn rubber when the light turns green use more fuel than I do.

There are a lot of pickups on the road that cost as much or more than a SUV, and fuel consumption is likely about the same unless they are a diesel.

[cowman]

Well the oil and gas business is just like any other. There is a buyer and a seller and no one forces you to buy it! I can view highway #2 out my window and the traffic is almost continuous!
I suspect Canadas tax structure is close to the UK...maybe a bit less?
I also suspect people in the UK don't have to contend with the distances we have here? Or the cold weather?
Is oil too high? Well in 1974 I bought a brand new chevy pickup for $3656 and gas at 45 cents a GALLON, or 10 cents a liter! If gas is 90 cents a liter today then I should be able to buy a new pickup for $32,904...which is probably about right(cheap pickup)?
However in 1974 we sold 600 lb. calves for 48 cents...so we should be getting $4.32/lb. if they had moved in tandem with pickups and gas! Now if I was getting $4.32/lb. I might just be smiling?...as a side note we sold barley for around $2.60/bushel in 74...equals $23 today!
...and we wonder why agriculture is shaky?

[cowman]

I agree cowman, and nobody should feel they have the right to judge others for the vehicle they choose to drive, the house they choose to live in and heat.
I haven't heard any criticism of two or three family vehicles and huge RV's which are a luxury and use one heck of a lot more fuel than my SUV.
The owner of the vehicles and houses in question pays the shots to heat and fuel them.
Many people are doing their part to make changes to older homes to conserve energy, but it is a costly process.

[FarmRanger]

You don't need to take any extraordinary measures against SUVs. The marketplace will eventually -drive- them off the roads if they start being prohibitively expensive to operate. (pardon the pun!)

We don't need agreements like Kyoto to do what the marketplace will take care of. Making fuel prices artificially high in a few Kyoto following countries just makes it less expensive for countries like China to belch out the same fuel we would have burned in the interim. They already have the edge in labor costs, why make it easier for them to buy fuel too?

[FarmRanger]

I agree that the cost of driving any vehicle has to be weighed against the need to own that particular type of transportation.
Replacement cost of an SUV is comparable to a higher end car with the exeption of luxury cars so I don't forsee replacement cost of SUV's being the deciding factor in owning one. Fuel usage is another issue.

[cakadu]

Emrald, you have explained in other posts your choice to drive what you do and it is because you are on the road so much of the time. FarmRanger is right - eventually people will get sick of having to put in $100 worth of fuel and have it used up in just a few days. (Remember when with most vehicles there was no way you could even put $40 in????)

For many of the people that drive these so called luxury vehicles it is a matter of status and for show as many of them will never leave the city let alone drive out on the highway. I can't imagine what the fuel consumption must be in the city with these things. The insurance costs on them would be through the roof as well and I just can't imagine paying all that money.

China is now on an upward curve in terms of it's fuel consumption and for the first time is a net importer of oil. What is going to happen when these "developing" countries have their oil and gas demands go up?

The bottom line still remains that we are diminishing a non-renewable resource at an increasing pace, with very limited options for the future in terms of fuel sources. Not to mention what we are doing or going to be doing to the environment along the way.

[cakadu]

Again, insurance is based not only on the vehicle but the driving record. I have a clean licence which makes my insurance affordable even on an SUV. I do not consider my vehicle a luxury vehicle even though it is a big SUV. I opted for some of the features but not all the bells and whistles of a luxury vehicle.

There are many things we do that use up a renewable resource. Wasting energy heating water for hour long showers, washing a handful of clothes, and drying them in a dryer for starters.


We can all do our part and we can all likely do a lot more to conserve energy and fossil fuels...