The Most Important News You Haven't Heard

Elections can sometimes take your mind off more important stuff.  File this under "Things that will suck no matter who wins":

Saudi Arabia could need the oil price to average more than $100 a barrel by 2015 to sustain the big public spending rises it plans in an effort to forestall the political unrest sweeping the Middle East.

The oil market is growing increasingly worried about Riyadh’s fiscal needs as it fears that they could force Saudi Arabia to pursue oil policies similar to those of Venezuela and Iran, traditionally the price hawks at the Opec oil cartel.

The break-even oil price the Gulf kingdom requires to balance its budget will jump from $68 last year to $88 this and then $110 in 2015, according to new estimates by the Institute of International Finance, a leading industry group.

Obviously, it costs more to pay your security forces overtime, and toss money into the angry crowd.  It isn't like the Saudi leaders will dip into their personal funds for any of that.   Mind you, one salutory effect of the higher gas prices that result:

Emissions go down, as in 2008 and 2009.

Stephane Dion Will Act On High Gas Prices!

Given stuff like this, a fortuitious bit of policy wonkery:

We also know Canadians are frustrated with spiralling energy costs and the lack of information and justification that often accompanies these increases. Canadians deserve clear and complete information and the provision of such information will make the market place fairer and more transparent. To accomplish this, we will restore the federal Office of Petroleum Price Information to monitor energy price fluctuations and provide clear, current information to Canadians. Work on the creation of this office was started under the previous Liberal government but was shut down by the Conservative government. The Minister of Natural Resources will be accountable to Parliament for the Office.

High Gas Prices As A Natural Carbon Tax, Part III

Miles driven (U.S. figures) continue to decline in April. Can't blame the decline on lousy weather anymore, either.

Surrender, Mclelland.

Bold New Tory Energy Policy!

With gas prices rising to record levels, the Conservatives say they will get tougher on gas stations that have inaccurate pumps.

Be Still My Beating Heart.

Prentice told Mike Duffy Live that a 10-year analysis showed that as many as three per cent of pumps were not accurate. Prentice is proposing changes to the way gas stations are monitored that could take effect as soon as this fall.

However, he did not specify how much money consumers might save due to the proposed bureaucratic changes.

Probably because mathematicians cannot conceive of a number that tiny.

So there you have it, folks. The Tories governing as though they had a Majority.

For Those Of Us Who Never Quite Got This Metric Thing

The online litre/gallon converter - using an updated input of $1.20 per litre - shows $5.46 per Canadian gallon and $4.54 per American gallon.

Working from this, and adjusting mathematically for the larger imperial gallon, gas would have been $3.72 per gallon back when I started driving back in 1980/81 (which was another high point for gas prices, apparently).

Anyone under 40 can probably ignore this post.