INVESTIGATING GAS PRICES

[dirty]

Here we go. As expected, President Bush has decided to order an investigation into high gasoline prices. He is scheduled to announce the probe today in Washington. This is in response to an ignorant public that demand politicians "do something" about high gas prices. This is so pathetic on so many levels...so we'll cover just a few.

Just like with the other calls for investigations into price gouging...this will go nowhere. A lot of money will be spent investigation oil companies...and just as a bunch of times before, no evidence of any such price gouging will be proven to have taken place. Besides, what is price gouging anyway? Just a buzzword used by the anti-capitalist, government-educated among us.

Most people think that one oil company owns the oil rig that gets the crude out of the ground, the tanker that delivers it and the refinery that makes the gasoline. This is also false. In many cases, every step in that chain is owned by a different party. Then, when it comes to the actual gasoline, the gas station is most likely an independent dealer...who may have a franchise from one of the big oil companies. We are to believe that all of these separate companies and individuals got together to fix gas prices artificially high?

<TABLE style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" borderColor=#000000 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="40%" align=right border=1><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%" bgColor=#ffffcc>Neal's On Fox News Today
Neal will be discussing this issue with Neil Cavuto today at 4pm on the Fox News Channel. Hear what they have to say about price gouging and who is really doing the gouging.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>There's also the pesky law of supply and demand. In case you haven't checked lately, the supply of crude oil and refined gasoline is limited, but the demand is increasing worldwide. This leads to temporary shortages and higher prices. It's not Bush's fault, and it's not the fault of the oil companies. If you want someone to blame, try the environmental lobby that fights any and all exploration for new sources of crude oil.

So no amount of investigations are going to do anything about gas prices. it sounds good, but you're still looking at between $3 and $4 a gallon this summer. If that's too high for you, time to warm up your tricycle ... or try walking. Maybe you'll work off some pounds.

 

[bdizzle]

Mr. Danger did say one great thing today:

"Record oil prices and large cash flows also mean that Congress has got to understand that these energy companies don't need unnecessary tax breaks like the write-offs of certain geological and geophysical expenditures or the use of taxpayers' monies to subsidize energy companies' research into deepwater drilling,"

 

[Glaken]

No more deposits into the reserve should help :+thumbs-2

 

[dirty]

the only thing that is going to Help Gas prices Longterm is get All our Refineries up and running and Building more....the problem is not a Gas shortage it is the ability to refine it to the Rigouros standards the Environmentalists have caused. Is this good or bad....I don't know....But Having one Grade of Gas for every state would keep Refineries up and they wouldn't have to shut down to make different Grades of Gas. There are over 100 Different grades of Gas depending on where you live. The reason Gas is Cheaper in Montana and Idaho is that they use the Less Refines type of Gas without all the Additives and shit since noone lives in those states. If you live in Big Cities you have to use the smog rated shit.....Just more and More Beaurocracy to slow the process down..

 

[Hell On Wheels]

That article states the high gas prices is not the oil companys fault....I understand the supply and demand situation, granted we do suck down the oil in the US....But how much profit is enough per QTR for the oil companys before it is considered taking advantage of a bad situation???

Exxon: Oil companies came under new fire yesterday when it emerged that ExxonMobil's profits are likely to soar above billion this quarter on the back of the fuel crisis. That's 10 million a day, and more net income than any company has ever made in a quarter. It's also a stunning 69 percent increase...

BP:
OIL giant BP banked record annual profits of 19.3 billion US dollars (?11.04 billion) today - below the UK best set by rival Royal Dutch Shell last week.

The average citizen is now pawning possesions in order to pay the outragous prices, but the oil companys are making record profits....We are putting ourself in poverty if this continues....Rich get richer...Poor get poorer....

 

[dirty]

But Profit margins have not increased..


If you keep oil down Artificially and charge less than it is going to cost you to replenish your supply you will be out of Business.....Unfortunately everyone is at the Mercy of OPEC who determines the price of a Barrel of Oil. They have to charge enough to be able to Buy more gas. Just becuase Oil Profits are up means that sales are up....Not Profit margins. These companies don't just deal with the US....Anytime you add more countries to the WTO you are increasing Users and that means if Production is down from our Refineries being down, we are producing 500,000 barrels less than at this time last year, Then Naturally Prices will rise. China and thier 30 Billion people buying gas from Opec and other nations that produce Oil has had a effect on gas prices as OPEC has not Boosted up production of OIl but the use has gone up.

the problem here in the US is we have Refineries down and we can't get the Gas Refined fast enough....