PumpTalk - Petro-Canada

Turn off your lights for Earth Hour

You may already be aware, but tomorrow (March 29), people are turning off their lights. Why? For Earth Hour. The initiative first occurred in Sydney, Australia last year. This year, Earth Hour has gone global – join in and turn off your lights and your electronics for an hour between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. (your local time).

High gas prices lead to...interesting studies.

Imagine you're a reporter tasked by your editor to write what seems like your 10 thousandth story on rising gas prices.  Do you get consumer reaction? Talk to an expert or analyst?  Pick any angle.  It's all been done before.  Many times. 

So what if someone did a "spin-off" study that said something like:  "High Gas Prices Save Lives" or "High Gas Prices Help You Shed Weight"?   Well, the first appears in this month's edition of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.  And the other, is by an Economist at Washington University in St. Louis.  I'm not debating the merits of either study, just saying as a former reporter myself, I'd be all over them.  In a safe, slimming manner of course.

Photo Credit: shuttercat7

Why do gas prices change when commodity prices change?

In a comment on an earlier post, Diane Wilson asked me why the price at the pump changed quickly after a change in the commodity price for oil or gasoline?  After all, it isn't refined and distributed to the gas station the next day.  So what gives?  I've answered this question a few times over the years, but apparently with limited success.  So let me try a different approach.