EclectEcon

Economics and the mid-life crisis have much in common: Both dwell on foregone opportunities

C'est la vie; c'est la guerre; c'est la pomme de terre . . . . . . . . . . . . . email: jpalmer at uwo dot ca


. . . . . . . . . . .Richard Posner should be awarded the next Nobel Prize in Economics . . . . . . . . . . . .

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Gasoline Prices in Canada and the U.S.

In my area we pay about 92.5 cents/litre for regular gasoline. In case you cannot do the conversions easily, use Google. Type in

4 litres in gallons
and get the result

4 liters = 1.0566882 US gallons
That means in Canada we pay about $3.50 (Cdn funds) per U.S. gallon of gasoline. At the current nominal exchange rate of 1 Canuck buck = 81 cents US, we are paying the equivalent of about $2.84 (US) for a US gallon of gasoline.

Compare that with the average price paid in the U.S. [roughly $2.30US].

Why do Canadians pay so much more for gasoline than Americans?
  1. Alberta has gotten snarky about letting the rest of us steal their oil. 8-)
  2. Canada has fewer people scattered over a larger area -- costs of distribution are, on average, higher in Canada [pretty minor in all likelihood].
  3. We have higher taxes on our gasoline.
The last explanation is without a doubt the most important.
 
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