Gasoline thefts are up
The cost of gasoline is soaring and so are thefts at the pump.
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steph 10:48 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
2$/L is theft at the pump.
Kate 11:12 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
That’s the thing – gasoline can’t stay cheap, it has to get more and more expensive to push us into other technologies, but that push is going to hurt with increased costs for food and other necessities.
DeWolf 11:22 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
We’re lucky to live in a city where it’s possible to get around by transit, foot and bike. Because anyone living in the 99% of North America that has a crippling dependency of cars is screwed.
Gas prices have been over $2/litre in Europe and Asia for years. They can manage because they have transportation alternatives. Here we’ve destroyed our public transit and let the market be overrun by gas-guzzling monster trucks that are three times the size of the cars that people should be driving.
Joey 11:38 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
@DeWolf all that is true, but there is a ‘chickens coming home to roost’ aspect to things. Nobody *forced* all those people to upgrade from sedans to crossovers and SUVs (though the car companies are hardly blameless, given their shift in product offerings). Anyway, it seems that gas prices soar immediately when oil spikes but they don’t come down so fast when oil prices drop, so there is an element of greed involved. When the theme of the moment is inflation, corporations that aren’t necessarily experiencing an increase in costs might still drive their prices up to ‘keep up’ and not miss out on the once-in-a-generation chance to grab some money.
DeWolf 11:46 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
I think you’re right in terms of vanity pickups. Very few people need anything like a Ford F150, even if you’re hauling equipment around, and yet that’s the best-selling car in Canada. (Not in Quebec thank god, but I was in Ontario recently and every other vehicle was a pickup.) But in terms of SUVs, I’m not sure consumers can be blamed. SUVs are vastly more profitable to car companies and they’re almost the only thing on the market now. There are virtually no small cars left.
Ant6n 12:38 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
“Because anyone living in the 99% of North America that has a crippling dependency of cars is screwed”
In Canada, half the population lives in the big metropolitan areas where there’s some transit. Even in he US, more than 1% of the population has access to transit. Just NYC has like 10Mio ppl with access to transit.
Implying that only 1% in North America have access to transit is furthering the myth of the inevitability of the automobile.
SMD 12:45 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
There are very compelling reasons to simply ban (or at least severely curtail) the sale of pickup trucks. As for SUVs, their meteoric rise in North America can partly be blamed on a boutique tax credit passed by George W. Bush is 2003 that gave up to $100,000 to business owners who purchased a vehicle that weighs 6,000 pounds or more when fully loaded. So policy-makers can also take some of the blame.
DeWolf 13:41 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
Ant6n, I’m not suggesting that cars are inevitable, just the opposite. Policymakers on this continent made a choice to subsidize low-density sprawl at the expense of more sustainable options. Now everyone is paying the price.
Also, access to transit does not preclude car-dependency. If transit means taking two or three times longer to get to your destination, it’s not really an option for anyone who has alternatives. That’s not making apologies for the situation, it’s simply pointing out the dysfunctional state of affairs on most of this continent. I’m not saying “transit is terrible, but this is North America and that’s just the way it is.” I’m saying it needs to be better.
That includes most of Montreal and other big cities in Canada. 4.5 million people live in Greater Montreal, but I would estimate that only a million of them live in areas where transit is good enough, and streets are walkable enough, to avoid using a car on a daily basis. It’s a problem even in areas like Lachine, which has absolutely mediocre transit service, despite being relatively dense and not that far from the city centre.
EmilyG 14:36 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
I remember living in the city last year, and both sides of my street were a long line of parked cars. And at least half of those were SUVs.
I wondered why so many people, living right there in the city, needed those.
Now I live in the suburbs, and there are may pickup trucks in addition to SUVs and other big things. When you’re walking down a street without a sidewalk, it can be hard to see around the monster trucks parked on the street to see if another monster truck is coming down the road towards you.
dhomas 14:44 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
I have no sympathy for people who complain about the price at the gas pump. Quebec and Canada have given $13k in incentives for EVs for a number of years. Add to that the 200-300$/month in gas savings for the average SUV, and you’ve more than made your money back in terms of TCO for an EV. Plus, we have some of the cheapest electricity in the world here in Quebec. It makes no sense for EVs to still be struggling to make a dent in new vehicle sales.
At this point, we’ve seen that the carrot obviously doesn’t work. Time to move on to the stick. Make it painful to drive a gas guzzler. Gas prices are one way, but unfairly penalize people who don’t own cars, in the form of increased prices of pretty much everything that requires transportation (especially groceries). I’d say we take a page from the Nordic countries and start taxing the shit out of ICE vehicles. You want an F150 that the dealer charges $40k for? Get ready to pay another $20k in taxes. You want an EV? No tax for you! There are now EV options. We don’t need to wait until 2030 to phase out gas cars.
Joey 14:50 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
@dhomas agreed, though the EV manufacturers can’t even keep up with demand from five years ago, let alone today
@EmilyG, ironically it’s us city-dwellers who drool over big crossovers and SUVs with all-wheel drive. The suburban dude with the garage/tempo doesn’t actually need AWD to get his car out in the morning; shovelling out your small EV after a snow dump on the other hand…
Kevin 15:37 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
>>> from @DeWolf “Also, access to transit does not preclude car-dependency. If transit means taking two or three times longer to get to your destination”
I live exactly 1 km from a metro station, and my office is next to one.
Right now my commute in a vehicle is 12-15 minutes. It’s a minimum of 45 minutes via transit.
At this point in my life, I am willing to pay the extra costs for a vehicle in order to get more time in my day to be at home.
As for the SUV/pickup trucks — blame fleet fuel efficiency regulations set by the US (CAFE standards) which are duplicated by Canada.
Raymond Lutz 18:39 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
“gasoline can’t stay cheap, it has to get more and more expensive to push us into other technologies”
The other technologies are already there but on which energy will they run on?
Fossil Fuels are an energy source and the alternatives (renewable energy, RE) are poor substitutes for FF. The best choice we had 30 yrs ago was solar (thermal + PV), but It’s now too late for PV (we won’t manufacture them fast enough before climate induced global famine and/or conventional peak oil disruption).
Ian 23:17 on 2022-03-10 Permalink
Let’s not forget the dominance of trucking over rail over the last 40 years – there’s a reason we get raspberries in February, and it’s trucking.
The price of EVERYTHING goes up when gas prices are high. Soy milk snack packs for my kid’s lunch went from $2.99 to $3.99 this week. Grocery costs affect me way more than having to party like it’s $1.99.9 at the pump, with my compact car with great mileage.
I drive to Ste Anne from Mil End 4 days a week, and that’s about one tank of gas for me, about 35 litres. It’s not a major expense if the cost of gas doubles, Groceries though? We all feel that.
Unless trucking goes electric or we go back to rail delivery of food gas prices are very much going to affect food prices along with everything else in the transport chain including all consumer goods.