subject: The Price of Gas and Electricity [print this page] The Price of Gas and Electricity The Price of Gas and Electricity
When economic times begin a downhill spiral, most of us tend to sacrifice our money-spending predisposition in order to sustain the two crucial goods we need in our lives: electricity and gas. These energy resources form a type of symbiosis needed to maintain the clockwork of manufacture and transportation operations so essential to us. Yet, as time moves forward we see how the red arrows in gas and electricity prices rise ever higher while our pockets try to keep up.
And try to keep up they will. This will remain to happen until we can find a suitable energy replacement from which to generate our gas and electricity needs. Currently, the mother source behind them is crude oil. As people multiply and more high tech, energy consuming gadgets are developed, the more oil we need. But oil doesn't dig itself out of the ground. That hard labor requires the synergy of the previously mentioned energy combo. As such, their prices rise as the demand for oil, the price regulating phenomenon of the world, increases in demand.
In the past forty years, the energy consumption of the world has more than doubled. And experts predict a swift climb in the future. China itself stands as champion; with less than one hundred billion kilo-watt hours of usage in the sixties, it sky rocketed to over four hundred billion kilo-watt per hours by 2010.
Gas and electricity prices have undoubtedly risen around the world; however the differences between these prices differ greatly from country to country. This has mostly to do with that particular government's policy when dealing with those resources. When speaking of gas, its highest price sold on any country during March 2005 goes to the Netherlands, in its capitol city of Amsterdam. The cost for a regular gallon was at a whopping $6.48. While in Caracas, Venezuela it was priced at just 12 cents! It is no wonder several Venezuelan citizens made money by selling them at higher costs around the neighboring countries. These soaring disparities come from the ease of their oil production. Amsterdam must import their oil, while Venezuela is a member of OPEC, thus producing its own. The later country has companies that are government-own and thus keep gas prices down. In terms of electrical pricing, the Netherlands is still a contender, though not worldwide.
However, in this case the European country has the advantage of consistent electrical power plant output, versus the South American nation's power shortages. If anything however, the Netherlands does boast one of the world's best transportation networks including its motorway for private owned vehicles. In the end, it is difficult to find a country which can boast a balanced between these two vital energy sources.
Unless our wages do not climb along with gas and electricity prices, we will be forced to reconsider our budget spending. For gas and electricity prices have risen considerably over the last few decades and they will continue to do so for years to come.
