Petrol prices see biggest daily jump in 17 years

16 comments
  1. And it will never come back down again. The big oil companies have got to offset that windfall tax somehow.

  2. The cool thing about watching the central pillars on which we’ve built our civilisation – cheap energy – start to fail, is seeing how the blame goes around for why things are falling apart. “There’s no *fundamental* issue with the system!” they cry, “It’s just [that guy] doing [that thing!]!”

    This is a super complex multifactorial problem, and it’s pretty fun watching the simple answers of ‘corporate greed’, ‘plans to price the poor off the road’, and ‘green crap’ get thrown all around. Turns out, there’s a huge number of factors all mixed in because it’s extremely complex. I’ve done a big explain on it in [this previous comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/v0wjle/comment/iaj2pyb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).

    I’ve spammed the link a lot before, but if you want to understand any of this more I’d highly reccomend the [Myth of Utopia lecture by Richard Norris to the Geological Society](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVEgnOTZ1As). I don’t agree with every single thing he says, but he explains the complexity of oil and energy very well, and considering the lecture was given nearly two years ago it now seems extremely prescient.

    TL:DR; The fossil energy system is in trouble. Cheap energy may be ending, after a decade of artificially low prices. Greed plays a part, depletion plays a part, the war plays a part, covid plays a part, climate change and related policy plays a part. Be very skeptical of people who offer you one sentence explanations that blame only one factor or group.

  3. Remember what happened during covid when we all reduced our driving like any retail if you can vote with your wallet

  4. As long as sanctions on Russia are around, this is the knock on effect

    That’s not good or bad, it’s just how it is. Russia has huge refining capacity, especially for diesel which compounds the effect, it’s not just buying the oil but refining it which is causing the spiral

    Follow Javier Blas on Twitter and see the crazy crack spreads in the oil market atm.

  5. oh no, I should have topped up yesterday – looks like I’ve wasted 60p

    sorry, I will boast about my high-end mpg and economical small low-powered car.

  6. I’m here waiting for the “just work from home” crew to arrive.

    Oh, and the “cycle 20 miles each way in the freezing cold and the rain” crew.

  7. And barely anybody can get an electric car because they’re both really expensive and have 12+ months lead times!

  8. The diesel at our local Tesco went up 2p yesterday morning. And then, went up ANOTHER 2p, THE SAME BLOODY DAY!

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