[the_only_turek_fan]

I have two questions that I hope get answered....

1. Harper's excise tax cut on diesel.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Excise or Excise tax (sometimes called an excise duty), is a type of tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country).

Now he cut the tax from 0.04 to 0.02. So anyone that produces diesel in Canada now pays two cents less tax, which means that there expenses come down two cents.

Question is, does it mean that these companies will automatically cut there price down by two cents as well? Cause with out them doing that, I don't see how the tax cut helps consumers? If the two cents in savings is trickled down to the consumer, then its a great thing, but does a tax cut necessarily mean that the company producing diesel will charge two cents less?

2. Taxing Carbon

As I understand it upstream oil and gas companies produce and sell barrel's of oil.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The upstream oil sector is a term commonly used to refer to the searching for and the recovery and production of crude oil and natural gas. The upstream oil sector is also known as the exploration and production (E&P) sector.

Now as I understand it, crude oil is sold at the global price of oil set by the market place that day. Is that correct in saying that? Now if these companies are taxed by the Canadian government on their emissions because the price of their product is set by the global market they won't be able to pass that additional expense to consumers. So upstream companies get the shaft big time.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia again

The petroleum industry is usually divided into three major components: Upstream, midstream and downstream. Midstream operations are usually included in the downstream category.
The downstream oil sector is a term commonly used to refer to the refining of crude oil, and the selling and distribution of natural gas and products derived from crude oil. Such products include liquified petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline or petrol, jet fuel, diesel oil, other fuel oils, asphalt and petroleum coke.
The downstream sector includes oil refineries[1], petrochemical plants, petroleum product distribution, retail outlets and natural gas distribution companies. The downstream industry touches consumers through thousands of products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, asphalt, lubricants, synthetic rubber, plastics, fertilizers, antifreeze, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, natural gas and propane.

Do the big oil companies in Canada do both upstream and downstream work?

And if not, do the downstream companies buy the crude oil and then refine and then sell the products that are refined from the crude oil? Refining also emits a lot of emissions and as I understand it those products are not sold at a global price so the additional expenses (carbon tax) can be passed on to consumers. Am I correct there?