Gas prices are up from last year, yet our consumption of Gas is also up, guess my statement that Gas demand is completely inelastic (i.e. price increases do not affect demand at all).
| Sales of refined petroleum products | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2006r | May 2007p | May 2006 to May 2007 | |
| thousands of cubic metres | % change | ||
| Total, all products | 8,230.2 | 8,973.5 | 9.0 |
| Motor gasoline | 3,486.1 | 3,709.9 | 6.4 |
| Diesel fuel oil | 2,268.0 | 2,405.8 | 6.1 |
| Light fuel oil | 224.9 | 273.0 | 21.4 |
| Heavy fuel oil | 430.1 | 614.0 | 42.7 |
| Aviation turbo fuels | 592.6 | 589.1 | -0.6 |
| Petrochemical feedstocks1 | 414.0 | 407.0 | -1.7 |
| All other refined products | 814.5 | 974.8 | 19.7 |
On this day where we are supposed to be thinking about the environment it suggests Canadian demand for fossil fuels is not dropping.
Not sure what will “win” but it’s pretty obvious a change is needed and we may well have crossed the tipping point.
-c8j
It wouldn’t make sense to take mass transit in my city… its one of the most spread out cities in the world (larger area than NYC) and in the winter, it can be deathly cold here. It would take HOURS (2 to 4 ) extra if I was to take mass transit, each day.
My city was designed around cars.
In the future I hope to see electric vehicles, and the only thing stopping that from being a reality is finding a method of energy storage that is better than our century old battery technology. Everything but the energy storage is in place… ultracapacitators anyone? or will hydrogen win?
Agreed, I grew up in a city where it only made sense to take the mass transit system, and the only time you drove (when my parents LET me) was to go long distances like out of town. I took the bus, subway and train everywhere.
–C8j
Until there are some serious changes in the countries larger cities there will be a significant need to drive. I take transit to work daily but because this system is barely adequate it makes it a real challenge to do for most people. Without good transit funding, more compact cities and a lot of education as the population grows more people will need to use cars to get to where they’re going.
Unfortunately this also mean the wasteful uses for the car will go up… this is the educational part I was mentioning, driving 2 minutes to the corner store should never occur. But we have been conditioned (especially in many suburbs) that you need to drive everywhere.