In all reality men, the oil companies can charge what they want. They know we need it and we will pay whatever they set the price .

But the price of oil is not set by the oil companies, it's set by commodities traders.

A whole lot of countries control the prices of drugs, except of course the U.S.of A. We spend astonomical amounts for drugs. Countries should control the cost of gas and diesel.
It's a matter of national security that we have oil and our goverment will do what it takes for our continual supply. Then the oil companies charge what they want because it's capitalism...................
We have more 12% more oil this year than last year yet we are paying considerably more this year then last. How does supply and demand work in the oil business?
Guess I'll go have a scotch because I don't like that either.

Tying oil price to the dollar, and enforcing dollar-only oil trade, has been great for the US, ushering in a long period of a strong dollar and cheap oil, now regarded as a God-given right by some. The thread should really be asking who is to blame for artificially cheap oil, even if that is somewhat snide.
A falling dollar is pushing commodity prices higher, at least a quick look at the data tells me this. I don't know if there's causation or just a correlation, but it makes sense to me.

*Price = expressed in dollars, naturally.

We pay above 8$ pr gallon :nope:

Thank your lucky stars your country only has 16,000 sq miles, ours has over 3 million!

So that's why BSE was let loose. :hmm:

Oil is power and power is money and money is controls of us that is to say while it lasts.

Europeans arent forced to commute like we are, therego they are incapable of understanding. Id like to see one commute every day accross the 91 Freeway, 35 miles to work, and back home again, 5 days a week, filling up at 4 dollars a gallon, going through a tank and a half of gas a week. Being forced to live that far because its the only affordable place to live. Then lets see if he changes his comment about "how americans think cheap gas is a god given right".

There are a few million per day commuting into London alone. Some of them 200+ miles return per day....and paying over $10 per gallon.

In the Netherlands more then 10$ per gallon, although a small country, a lot of commuters doing avg. 30 miles daily one way trip. profit of SHELL a dutch oil company went historically high in the first three months of 2008 (42% more net profit and now 6.75 billion dollars). Although it's a good thing to be prudent with using energy resources it is a difficult problem and as I do not think all americans think cheap gas is a god given right, it is a little bit off a simplification to generalize and say that we do not understand the problem, I think you underestimate the commuting or overestimate the possibilities of other means of transport. I personally did 60 miles daily per train (one way trip) for over a decade to come to my work. Not only because of the price of housing, but simply because there was no housing available and affordable for me and my family. Now I have a new posting and make over 60 miles by car, no public transport alternative available. Now I will try and sink some japanese oil tankers. Realising It wont solve the problem:rotfl: . but it's good for my subsim career. Greetings from an TMO fan.

I drive approx 14,000 miles/mo at an average of 5 mpg in my Freightliner XL.

14,000 miles / 5 mpg = 2800/gals per mo X $4.15/gal = $11,620.00/mo in fuel costs.

Ouch...

You sound like a congressman we have here where I live named Dennis Kucinich.

Look, if you put a windfall profits tax on the gas companies the only ones that would suffer is the consumer because corporations don't pay taxes, they pass them on to the people that buy their products by elevating the price.

There are many other industries that have a higher profit margin than oil companies. Further most Americans have their retirement invested in petroleum through mutual funds, 401Ks, and pension funds. The largest labor unions such as the AFL-CIO, Teamsters, NEA, UAW, and AFSCME retirement pensions are heavily invested in oil.

I love capitalism and profit. John D Rockerfeller grew up from nothing, came from a huge family and helped to raise something like 8 or 9 other siblings. He became incredibly rich by turning us into the modern oil and gasoline burning economy we have today. He created the modern industrial revolution but people hated him and were jealous. However, if it wasn't for him there would be no middle class which was also created from the many fruits of his efforts. Capital creates wealth and creates jobs and my paycheck has never been signed by a poor man.

The price is being driven up by several factors but none of it is Dick Cheney and Haliburton sitting with CEO of Exxon at a table in a dark room planning how to stick it to the American people.

1.) China and India are putting huge demand on oil because instead of riding bicycles they are all driving now.

2.) Oil is a finite resource and the wells are running dry. Saudi Arabia just had to open a new oil field and use all types of expensive drilling techniques and methods just to keep up with the 12.5 million they produce.

3.) The USA sits on the largest coal supply in the world including 1.3 trillion dollars worth of the cleanest burning coal in the world locked up in a national park in Utah. We also have nuclear technology and some of the brightest scientists and engineers at our fingertips. Further recent discoveries show that the US may have the largest supply of oil in the world as well. There is the Alaskan reserves, oil in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast, oil under the great lakes, there is a massive deposit of oil shale all throughout the rockies, and the recently discovered Bakken Formation in North Dakota may contain 175 - 500 billion barrels of oil that could be obtained through horizontal drilling technology. As a comparison, Saudi Arabia is estimated to have 220 billion barrels remaining.

So all this said and do we build refineries? Do we drill for oil at home? Do we build coal and nuclear power plants to reduce demand on oil? The answer is no. Bureaurcracy, government, red tape, and environmental groups all block us from saving ourselves.

Q: Are oil companies to blame for high fuel prices?
A: Not in the UK; for that last 10 years you can lay the rising cost of fuel firmly at gordon browns door. Prior to that it was the tories 'fuel price escalator, designed as a means of generating revenue and forcing people to use their cars less.


If a litre of petrol cost 107.9p, it would be split in the following way:

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/5...diagramvn4.gif

http://www.petrolprices.com/fuel-tax.html

Whatever way I look at it, we pay too much tax... on just about everything here. :dead:

Interesting. Ever notice how increased prices are always the brainchild of some bureaucrat or a government policy that trys to balance one thing but only ends up screwing over the entire economy and stifles productivity?

All said and done. I CANNOT see past record setting profits, coinciding with record setting gas prices. That is just bullschitt. Plain, and simple bullschitt. I can see rasing prices to maintain a profit, but NOT a record setting profit. No amount of pro big oil statistical maniulpation will ever convince me otherwise.