Gas Prices in the United States

[thedudeistoocool]

Why are gas prices so high

It was revealed before congress on Tuesday April 1 that oil companies made 123 BILLION in PROFIT last year unfortunately this was not an April Fools Joke

The US consumes on average 146 Billion gallons of gas in a year

That equates to about .84 cents per gallon that oil companies are profiting free and clear

If any other company had a choke hold monopoly on the American public like "Big Oil" does, the government would sue them and force them to break apart (Think AT&T in the 80's)

When Airline pilots threaten to strike the President has always stepped in and prohibited it, as it would disable the nations transportation

It is time to write your congress persons and give them an ultimatum

A - Oil companies can cap profit at 10 cents per gallon and restrict their executives from earning in excess of $1,000,000.00/year

B - Remove oil trading from the commodities boards as this creates false and inflated levels of costs in relation to the actual cost it takes to pump oil and convert it to gas - Hot trading just leads oil companies into believing they can raise gas prices

If these conditions are not met the governement must step in and seize all oil assets in the US and simply sell gas based on a flat rate plus applicable regional taxes

Please if you agree with this statement, or can improve on it - WRITE YOUR CONGRESS it's easier than you think just go to congress.org and follow the necessary links for your reps and sens

Also forward this info to everyone on your contacts list

If you want to see gas prices drop back to an average national cost of $2.25 per gallon this is the way to do it

[KODAD]

If you want to influence the price of a product, don't buy it--- I guarantee the prices will come down---Why shouldn't a company make a profit on their product--- I want my company to make a profit---Don't you want your company to make a profit?---If nobody is buying what I offer, I'll lower my prices; consequently, if everyone was wanting what I had, I'd raise my prices-----I don't understand why you want to restrict(punish) a company for trying to make a profit on a legal product---

[thedudeistoocool]

True I am not against profit

But your company, as mine does, probably has COMPETITION

Oil companies DO NOT have COMPETITION (and if you say well there's Exxon, Shell, Mobil yadda yadda you are almost correct but if they were competing oil prices would be dropping if they collude oil prices rise)

Even Microsoft has APPLE and Linux as competitors

Of course if you don't mind paying excessive prices we could charge you an extra $4.00 per gallon and I could get my gas for free

I don't know of anyone anywhere in the US who does not pay for gas in one way or another
Increased airfares, Increased shipping costs for trucking, increased power bills.
Increased prices on Chinese manufactured goods to compensate for their subsidized gas.
Doesn't matter if you own a car or not, gas prices are affecting you.

[byrondv]

Why would I do that? I want to see how cheap used Yukon XLs get...

Plus I like small cars. Higher the gas prices are... more little cars with high mpg we will get.

Yay.

[KODAD]

A - Oil companies can cap profit at 10 cents per gallon and restrict their executives from earning in excess of $1,000,000.00/year

B - Remove oil trading from the commodities boards as this creates false and inflated levels of costs in relation to the actual cost it takes to pump oil and convert it to gas - Hot trading just leads oil companies into believing they can raise gas prices

Your original post doesn't mention collusion or competition. Collusion would seem to be unfair, yet your solution doesn't address it. It wants to restrict the salary of an executive, and sieze the assets of a publicly traded(owned) corporation that employs hundreds of thousands Americans.
I can't even respond to" we could charge you an extra $4.00 per gallon and I could get my gas for free", do you know how ridiculous that sounds??? Do you think that that kind of rationale is going to help intelligent people to get behind your cause?
If you lump Shell, Mobil, Exxon together, isn't that the same thing as saying Microsoft, Apple and Linux has a strangle hold on the tech market and that they should have competition?
(although, Linux? come on)(just kidding Linux users!)
I don't own stock in any oil company, but to restrict a company for doing well in the American marketplace seems like a dangerous precedent to set, and would lead us down a slippery slope.
Now, if you want to talk eliminating any and all tax breaks they get, then I might be able to get behind you(but just maybe, because of the logic in your previous post)

[rennisaint]

OK, here's a quick lesson in the economics of oil.
A simple view:
Oil companies pump oil out of the ground, they get it to a refinery the refinery then buys it form them, the refinery then sells the refined products to retailers who sell it to consumers.

The reality:
6 to 12 month deliveries are sold on the futures market, these pieces of paper basically say that I promise to deliver so many barrels of oil to a refinery in 6 months, or whatever for such and such a price. These futures are bought from oil companies who are happy to let speculators pay stupid prices. They then ship the oil and the speculators never see the oil even though it is technically theirs. Then once the refineries get hold of it there are futures on all of their products so the price goes up again. It finally gets to the consumer after it changes hands in paper form a few more times.

So, the first lesson is, the oil companies are not setting prices, the futures market does. So piss on them for creating a price bubble, kinda like the recent housing bubble, that will eventually burst, but not before torturing us for a while.

Second lesson, currently there is plenty of oil being pumped, the market is near saturation and there are larger reserves than there were five years ago when prices were dirt cheap. So again, not the oil companies, it must be someone else. A new refinery hasn't opened in years, this has caused serious problems as demand has expanded greatly and refineries are now a significant bottle neck, especially after a hurricane blows through and takes out 15 percent of the capacity. So why don't the evil corporations build more refineries? Because it costs billions and about five years to build one so by the time you get your new plant online, something may have happened to the market and now oil is cheap again and now you have this plant to pay off and your cost budget is screwed. Oil companies have huge amounts of mathematicians and statisticians that just sit and crunch numbers on how they can expand, trust me, they are in competition with each other, they all want to take shares of the market from each other.

Third, the oil crisis of the seventies taught companies a huge lesson. Back then as soon as the crisis hit they started investing in new wells, refineries, and shipping etc.. So, when all this new infrastructure suddenly came online the market got obliterated, you couldn't make money pumping oil out of the ground anymore. That's why oil stayed relatively cheap until recently as demand caught up to production. Now oil companies are hesitant and don't want to invest in too much infrastructure and get spanked again when the market falls (and it will fall).

Finally, everyone knows that the middle east has way more oil than they are letting on. By royal edict you cannot prospect for oil in Saudi Arabia in any area that hasn't already been investigated, which leaves about 5/6ths of the country unexplored. Wonder what's there? So, if you come up with new technology, or start up a new well and you figure you can make money as long as the price of oil doesn't dip below $50 a barrel, and you start taking away profits from the middle east, they will flood the market with cheap oil for long enough to drive you out of business so they can keep their strangle hold on oil. If you need proof of this, ask the Russians. For this reason nobody who has half a brain is willing to seriously invest in technology that will cost more than the predicted sustainable price per barrel. This price is basically the level that you can expect oil to drop to and be stable at some point in the future. It varies depending on who you ask, but most companies put that at somewhere between 25-35 dollars per barrel.

Finally, oil companies deserve the profits they are making!!!! They gamble ridiculous amounts of money on the fact that tomorrow my fiance (a fuel cell researcher) isn't going to have a brain fart in her lab that wipes them out and makes it so everyone can simply get energy by throwing their garbage into their gas tank (way more realistic than you might think). They also lost money hand over fist for years when the market collapsed after the seventies.

Oh yeah, we still can't bitch, be happy you don't live in the EU where the government taxes gas prices up to around 8 or 9 dollars a gallon.

[artbyjody]

Another one of those urban myth emails being posted around. Meaning some factual - but encompassed in wording stating "boycott", "stop buying" etc will drive gas prices down...this goes back to 2001...Urban Legends Reference Pages: Gas Out

However...if actual discussion be had...

Now take a look at this ARTICLE IN NY TIME (1896)...

Now see this Table that lists the gas profits from 2003-2006..

Now - its not the gas stations making the money - they normally make very few cents on gallon for fueling us...the bulk of their money is in cigs, bevs, and snacks...see this article for how gas stations are bent over to begin with...

Yes, regulation needs to be had... because oil and gas singularly reflect more than 25% of our cost of living expenses...beyond just paying at the pump....

[rennisaint]

Now, if you want to talk eliminating any and all tax breaks they get, then I might be able to get behind you(but just maybe, because of the logic in your previous post)

PSH! The oil industry are chump change when it comes to tax breaks. Google "farm subsidy map". Where does most of the money go? Manhattan! At least the oil companies are producing what they are getting a tax break for. On the flip side, I'm a libertarian so huge companies getting subsidies pisses me right the hell off no matter who they are.

[KODAD]

Originally Posted by rennisaint

PSH! The oil industry are chump change when it comes to tax breaks. Google "farm subsidy map". Where does most of the money go? Manhattan! At least the oil companies are producing what they are getting a tax break for. On the flip side, I'm a libertarian so huge companies getting subsidies pisses me right the hell off no matter who they are.

I agree wholeheartedly with you-----people getting paid NOT to produce is one of the most unamerican thing I have heard of, there's just no sense or logic about it at all!

[rennisaint]

One last thing (I promise, I don't want this to turn into my own personal rant zone), you've got to be stoned to think that buying small cars, using less gas or any car related activities are going to bring oil companies to their knees. Moving cars around uses minute amounts of oil compared to shipping, commercial transport, and plastics production. That's right every time you buy something plastic you are using oil, and lots of it. So, no oil companies don't give a damn whether your car runs at 20mpg or 100mpg. On the other hand, my lungs do......

OK OK I'm going to leave this thread now I swear!!!