Article

Summary:
Gasoline prices between the state of California and the rest of the United States continues to widen. Analysts said the reason for the jump in gasoline prices may be the result of low production and tight supply. While gasoline prices in California increased by 5.4 cents to the price of $3.153 per gallon, nationally the average has dropped 1.1 cents to a price of $2.577 per gallon. Analysts also stated that the reason for this huge gap of 57.6 cents per gallon of gasoline between California and the rest of the United States could be the result of refineries not producing anywhere close to full production. On Sept. 4, 2009 refineries in California produced 5.8 million barrels of California-grade gasoline from a stock of 17.8 million barrels of oil. On this same day last year refineries produce 6.2 million barrels with only supplies being nearly 40% lower.

Connection:
In chapter one of our text book (Working With Economics A Canadian Framework) the economics term for scarcity was anything that has a limited supply. This article talks about gasoline prices in California increasing due to low production and tight supply from refineries (a limited supply). Because there is a huge demand for gasoline and a limited supply of it in California prices have been on the rise while the rest of United States enjoys a drop in gasoline prices for the fifth straight week. Prices for gasoline in California will continue to rise until refineries start producing more gasoline.

Reflection:
In my opinion because gasoline prices have been on the rise for the past few years and the amount of gasoline is quickly depleting we should develope new technologies that depend of a different source of energy. Though they are already developing technologies such as electric cars i don't think this would work out. Canadians already consume huge amounts of electricity and if everyone starts to use electric cars will we even be able to produce enough electricity for it? Producing more electricity in Canada would also mean that we would need to build more dams which destroys the natural habitat of some animals. I like the idea of trying develope new technologies that can use a different energy sourch, however i dont think the idea of electric cars would work out too well.