Sympathy for Big Oil understandably in short supply

Forgive me, for I have sinned.

I have been unfaithful, and I don’t care.

I am a gas-price trollop — or, more accurately, I suppose, libertine — cruising the streets day and night (mostly on my way to and from work) looking for the best deal.

Full serve, self serve, pre-pay, pay at the pump — I’ve done it all.

From time to time, I’ve tried to change my philandering ways, only to be disappointed. Never again.

One morning last week, I approached a station that had led the way to 97.9, where I’ve been gassing up for awhile. Like a hot poker, the numbers on the marquee struck my unbelieving eyes — “1.19.9.”

“Is 22 cents overnight even legal?” I muttered to myself as I passed it by, vowing never to return.

We are all, each and every day, at their mercy. When the rapture comes, we will be transported to our creator — Big Oil — in a giant 4X4  topped up with $20 worth of regular. Some will, no doubt, stay behind, hoping to save a penny or so a litre if they hold out for just one more day.

The oil companies have more excuses for high prices than our kids have for not doing their homework — supply and demand, the high cost of transportation, a refinery in Texas blew a gasket, a sheikdom in the Middle East is having a revolution.

Nobody believes any of it. What I’m trying to figure out right now is why I should be sympathetic to an industry that raises the price of a litre of gasoline 22 cents overnight and now wants to make things less safe for its gas jockeys.

WorkSafeBC doesn’t see it that way, but I’m not impressed by the plan to let gas station owners avoid double-staffing or putting up safety barriers as long as they install time-lock safes and hand out transmitters.

“Some workers said ‘we don’t want to be behind the screen,’” a WorkSafeBC spokesperson said by way of explanation, adding that if gas stations are forced to have two employees during late-night hours, it could mean two people instead of only one would be in harm’s way.

Let the logic of that one settle in for a bit.

Not that I’m a particular fan of gas-station attendants. They range, in my experience, from friendly to catatonic. Nor do I enjoy the pre-pay requirement of Grant’s Law.

But I do think we need to remember the reason for it. In 2005, Grant DePatie was on late-night duty at a Maple Ridge gas station when 16-year-old Darnell Pratt put $12.30 in the tank and pulled away without paying for it.

When he tried to stop Pratt, the 24-year-old DePatie was caught under the car and dragged to his death.

Pratt was convicted of manslaughter and released last year to a halfway house in Kamloops. He took off, was caught and put back in jail. He was released on parole again a few weeks ago.

So, I’m just saying, maybe Big Oil could suck it up, stop whining about the rules, and take some of its 22 cents a litre and put it into security for the gas jockeys who help make them all that money.