Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowboy89
You're right oil companies probably wouldn't go under, just as grocery stores won't go under if they arbitrarily sold food for less as well. You NEED food don't you? Are oil companies not allowed to build towers to meet their office needs like companies in other industries? You need a bank too, why don't they just charge less interest than they could get on the market? Hell, why don't they just lend you money for free because you NEED it. You NEED a phone too, why not make Telus sell their phone service for arbitrarily less because they wouldn't go under if they sold things for cheaper too.
The issue is that when prices are set lower than the market is willing to pay for them comsumption will increase because the marginal consumer will be consuming more. The pumps would run dry, and then people like you would blame the oil companies for a giant conspiracy for holding back gasoline from the market. There simply isn't the refinery capacity available in North America nor the ability to quickly add capacity to meet the demand of a constant 80 cent/ litre price.
Shows how uninformed you are when you specifically mention Encana because: a) They don't even sell gasoline in Canada, b) they are building ONE tall building in Calgary not two, 3) Oil makes up less than 20% of their business
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Good point Cowboy, the problem is that when you bring up something like the phone company, they have had a regulating body (CRTC) for years controlling the cost, TELUS and Bell couldn't adjust the prices if they wanted to. Why doesn't the government do this with gas? Probablt because the government is run by oil and gas so they don't want to piss them off.
Have a look at the design of ENCANA's building and ask yourelf if that's two building, unless you consider a plus 15 connecting two different buildings to be one, but then Calgary only has one office building downtown in that case. So tell me about being uninformed, what does it look like?
As for the theory of people driving more when gas is at a lower price, i drive where i need to when i need to regardless of the price, i assume most people are the same way. Gas gets burned probably at the same rate in the winter as the summer in Alberta, when i get into my car and it's -20 out i need to let it run for 15 minutes just to warm it up, as do most people. The oil-patch is at it's busiest during the winter, most of these people drive trucks and drive quite a distance each day, that doesn't happen nearly as much in the summer due to roads not being accesible from the spring thaw.