And yet, strangely, according to the article (not the report - which I hadn't noticed as a PDF link), 'The recommendations contained in this excerpt were rejected by Industry Minister John Manley.'

The recommendations -
'The Committee recommends that either Automatic Temperature Compensation be removed from use in Canada or, to avoid the losses incurred to install expensive ATC devices, that the 15 degrees Celsius mark be lowered to the average regional temperature in which product is sold at the tank and retail level.'

Strangely, the result in Canada seems to be that the government forced the retailers to make an additional billion dollars over 10 years - and yet, not a peep from the oil industry screaming about such a heavy regulatory burden being forced on them.

I grew up near Washington, D.C., and though I respect facts, it is a stunning lesson when growing older to realize what an increasingly insignificant role facts play in such contexts. Or to put it differently - 100 million dollars in a year in one province is the sort of fact that trumps others, especially with some of that money flowing into the correct hands - for example, I'm sure that Industry Minister John Manley found gainful employment after leaving government.

Oh wait -
'Shortly after Manley announced his retirement from federal politics, Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario and close friend of Manley, appointed him to chair a royal commission on the energy system of Ontario in the wake of the eastern North American blackout of 2003.

On May 26, 2004, Manley was named to the Board of Directors of telecommunications firm Nortel Networks. On January 27, 2005, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. He is also chair of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America, a project of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. In March 2005, the Task Force released a report that advocated a North American union, an economic union between Canada, Mexico and the United States which would resemble the European Union.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Manley_(politician)#Post-political_career

I'm sure no one would question his commitment to the average citizen of Canada, especially if that average citizen just happened to be a fellow board member of Nortel, or the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

The simple fact remains, that in Canada, such systems were installed, and oil retailers profited at the gross margin, and that in much of the U.S., installing such systems will cause oil retailers to lose revenue, with the added burden of the cost of the system themselves.

It won't change the amount of oil being pumped from the ground, no question.

And such discussions add light to why in a German context, peak oil in terms of prices is not much of a theme. Most Germans expect oil companies to profit as much as possible, in part because most Germans would do the same thing if they were running an oil company - cynicism and no illusions about human nature are often hard to tell apart.

Your broad points are not actually in dispute in my eyes - the retail gasoline pricing/volume system in the U.S. as it exists today does not really require any change. As for motivation - well, it is a business, so it is all about the money. Call me cynical.