Gouging at the pump

I lumped it up yesterday when my fill-up closed at just shy of $50. After all, gas should be expensive, as a means of encouraging us to drive less. But what if the main reason for the hefty increases is gouging by oil and gas companies? It’s one thing for governments to reap the gains of higher prices if they commit to ploughing back that revenue into public transit and combatting climate change. It’s quite another if they are lining the pockets of the very people funding the climate change skeptics.

In a report to be released tomorrow by the CCPA, Hugh Mackenzie does the math and tells us how much we are being gouged. Below is the advance story from the CP wire. I would personally go one step further than Hugh: let’s nationalize these companies and take gouging out of the equation. As The Daily Score put it today, “today’s car-centric system is the result of Soviet-style social engineering”, so why not just let government control the price and distribution, and use the proceeds for the public good?