gasoline

Thursday November 29, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 29, 2018

A global shift toward electric vehicles is well underway, experts say

When General Motors cited plans to pivot toward electric and autonomous vehicle production as a key reason it had decided to mothball its Oshawa assembly plant, the company was talking about a future that many Canadians didn’t recognize.

August 4, 2017

But experts say the auto industry’s seismic shift away from the traditional internal combustion engine is already well underway.

“Pretty much every manufacturer’s making some decision and financial commitment to what the vehicle of the future is going to look like,” said David Adams, president and CEO of Global Automakers of Canada, an umbrella industry association that represents BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, and Volkswagen.

“Our members, all of them look at … decarbonized transportation as what the future is going to be.”

In a news release Monday, GM said it would cease current operations in Oshawa, as well as four plants in the U.S., by the end of 2019. The company said the decision would save it $6 billion, and enable it to double investment in its electric and autonomous vehicle programs in the next two years.

July 17, 2009

According to Adams full automation of vehicles is likely still “decades away.”

But electric vehicles — either battery electric or plug-in hybrids — make up a small but rapidly growing share of the market. As of December, 1.4 per cent of all vehicles sold in Canada were electric, according to FleetCarma, a technology consultant firm, and there were just under 50,000 of the vehicles on Canada’s roads.

However, the number of electric vehicles sold last year increased 68 per cent compared to the year before. The 18,560 plug-in vehicles that drivers bought in 2017 represented a fivefold increase compared to sales in 2013.

The GM-made Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid, was the hottest seller in Canada last year, followed by the Chevrolet Bolt, a battery electric vehicle. GM announced this week it would discontinue the Volt as the company prioritizes battery electric vehicles. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Saturday May 5, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 5, 2018

Ontario gas prices approach record high as election looms

The high price of gasoline is a concern right now for many of Ontario’s drivers and voters, giving it the potential to become an issue in the provincial election campaign.

The average price of regular unleaded gas across the province is sitting just shy of $1.37/litre according to data compiled by the Ministry of Energy. That’s just six cents lower than the highest-ever average price that hit the province in late June 2014, shortly after Ontario went to the polls the last time.

PC leader Doug Ford is trying to convince voters that gas prices will soar even further if the Liberals are re-elected.

“We all know that paying $1.50 for gas is what would happen under the Kathleen Wynne government,” Ford told a news conference at a gas station last week. “Kathleen Wynne will have her hand in your pocket every time you fill at the pump. I can tell you, that’s not going to happen on our watch.”  

Ford says his government would bring down gas prices by ending the Liberals’ cap-and-trade program. That would knock 4.3 cents a litre off the price.

However, Ford is not promising to scrap or reduce the provincial gasoline tax, which adds 14.7 cents to each litre. The gas tax brings $2.7 billion into provincial coffers each year, with a portion allocated to municipalities for local transit. Only three provinces have a lower gas tax than Ontario.  

“We were very clear when we took action on climate change that there was a small increase in the price of gas,” Premier Kathleen Wynne said this week in response to a question from CBC News.

She argues that this latest spike is a result of market forces.  

“There’s a very significant vacillation of gas prices,” Wynne said. “It’s very challenging, it’s a private market.” (Source: CBC) 

 

Thursday October 16, 2014

Thursday October 16, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 16, 2014

Gas prices at 5-year low and dropping

The pain oil producers feel with oil prices hovering just above $80 a barrel is a bonus for consumers filling up at the gas pump.

Gasoline prices are at a five-year low in Canada, leaving more money in consumers’ pockets.

Prices have dropped to the $1.11 a litre level in some parts of Ontario, as low as $1.03 in Edmonton, $1.25 in Vancouver and $1.22 in St. John`s, a sharp price drop from the early summer. The Canadian average was about $1.23, according to Roger McKnight, an analyst with En-Pro International.

The price will fall even lower in most parts of Canada over the coming weeks, said Dan McTeague, who analyzes oil and gas prices at tomorrowsgaspricetoday.com.

McKnight agrees. “I could see it [crude] going down another $6 a barrel for WTI and that would translate into another three cents per litre [at the pumps] within the next 30 days,” he said.

McTeague said years of speculation drove world oil prices to $147 US a barrel in 2008 and $115 US this June at the time when ISIS seemed to be threatening supply in Syria.

But now there is a worldwide glut of oil.

“The reality is now setting in that crude has no floor, and as any other commodity, when the supply is high and the demand is low, prices have nowhere to go but down,” he told CBC News.

The shale oil boom in the U.S. has resulted in strong supply in North America and Saudi Arabia signalled last week that it would continue to pump oil and sell it at $80 a barrel, rather than manage its supply. That’s a 30 per cent drop since June.

And waning international growth has led to a drop in demand for crude.

West Texas Intermediate, the main oil contract traded in New York, is selling at $81.78 US a barrel today, and Western Canada Select, the price paid to many Canadian producers, is at $68.98 US.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver acknowledged the hit against Canadian producers, who may soon have to cut back on investment in new production.

“There will be implications for some companies, on the other hand, Canadian consumers can benefit from lower prices,” he said in a news conference Tuesday. (Source: CBC News)

Friday April 25, 2014

Friday April 25, 2014

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 25, 2014

Canada passes US in middle-class wealth

According to a New York Times report, the rich in the US are getting richer, but the poor and middle classes are falling behind some of their Western peers.

“Middle-class incomes in Canada – substantially behind in 2000 – now appear to be higher than in the United States,” David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy write. “The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.”

The UK median income is still behind that of the US, but it’s catching up fast – a 19.7% increase since 2000. This is the same increase as Canada’s, whereas the US number was up by only 0.3%. (It’s worth noting that Germany’s middle class is also stagnating – at 1.4%.)

The Times reporters based their conclusions on a survey of household incomes in about 20 countries over the course of 35 years, taking into account inflation, differences in taxes, government benefits and cost of living in different locations.

“With a big share of recent income gains in this country flowing to a relatively small slice of high-earning households, most Americans are not keeping pace with their counterparts around the world,” they write.

The reporters point to three reasons why all but the wealthiest American may be falling behind:

First, educational attainment in the United States has risen far more slowly than in much of the industrialized world over the last three decades, making it harder for the American economy to maintain its share of highly skilled, well-paying jobs…

A second factor is that companies in the United States distribute a smaller share of the bounty to the middle class and poor than similar countries elsewhere…

Wednesday, January 22, 2013Finally, governments in Canada and Western Europe take more aggressive steps to raise the take-home pay of low- and middle-income households by redistributing income.

The struggle for middle- and lower-class Americans is reflected in public opinion polls, the reporters write, which generally show greater dissatisfaction with their government than in other Western nations.

If the US middle class has it bad, the poor have it worse.

“The American poor now clearly trail the poor in several other rich countries,” Leonhardt and Quealy write. “At the 20th percentile – where someone is making less than four-fifths of the population – income in both the Netherlands and Canada was 15 percent higher than income in the United States in 2010.” (Source: BBC NEWS)

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

 

Post by L’Expérience lol78.

Post by Dalton McGuinty: Ontario, up yours!

 

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Sunday, April 22, 2007By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Sunday, April 22, 2007

Report to claim Kyoto would trigger recession

The Conservative government is preparing to table an economically apocalyptic estimate of the Kyoto Accord’s implementation costs to Canada, CTV News has learned.

A leading Canadian environmentalist told The Canadian Press earlier Wednesday that she expects Environment Minister John Baird to present new research to say Canada can’t meet its Kyoto commitment when he appears before a Senate committee on Thursday.

“We expect Mr. Baird to paint a picture of economic collapse if we comply with the Kyoto targets,” said Louise Comeau of the Sage Centre, an environmental think tank.

She said the government has commissioned research based on assumptions that produce astronomical estimated costs.

Robert Fife, CTV’s Ottawa bureau chief, is reporting the following details from the study, which he said has been backed by independent economists:

The economy would shrink by 4.2 per cent if Kyoto is implemented. “It says it will cause a recession on par with the 1981-82 recession.”

Job losses will total 275,000 by 2009

Electricity costs will jump by 50 per cent by 2010

Gasoline costs will jump by 60 per cent almost immediately, and

Home heating oil will double.

Baird told a House of Commons committee in February that attempting to meet Kyoto would be impossible and could lead to economic collapse. (Source: CTV News)