I recently posted about problems with the Alberta oil sands and the impact on carbon emissions and the environment [The Problem with the Alberta Oil Sands].
I noted that Alberta had received lots of money from the oil companies and suggested that the provincial government was well-positioned to take the lead in developing cleaner methods of extracting oil. I specifically said that the province had "plenty of room to manoeuvre."
One commenter noted that the provincial government doesn't have as much money as we think. But that wasn't the entire point. I was also referring to the fact that provincial income taxes are lower in Alberta and the province does not have a sales tax.
I was thinking about gasoline prices as well. Here's a map of current gas prices across Canada from GasBuddy.com. Most of the differences are due to taxes. Notice anything peculiar about Alberta—the province that's being accused of so much pollution? I think there's room to manoeuvre if it's serious about climate change.
Here's the USA map for comparison.
A typical US price is $2 per (US) gallon. The current Canadian dollar is equivalent to about 0.8 US dollars and there are 3.79 litres per US gallon. This means that a typical US gas price of $2.00/gal is equivalent to 53¢(US)/liter or 66¢(CDN)/liter.
A typical price for Canadian gas is about 86¢(CDN)/liter so the USA is selling gasoline for 20% less than Canada. I think this is mostly due to lower taxes.
I don't know what the current price of gasoline is in Europe but I suspect it's much more.
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