Are Oil Companies to blame for high fuel prices?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by PhantomLord

Quoting the german magazine "Der Spiegel": "A prayer is the answer to all your problems!"

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,551480,00.html

A religious group formed up in Washington. Daily prayers for lower fuel prices... they call it "prayer at the pump". :hmm:
They believe the fuel price will go down like the walls of jericho.... some day...

I think they'll be more chance of them getting bit on the bottom by a cabbage

There should be a windfall tax imposed on these gigantic fuel companies as soon as they reach a predetermined profit threshold.....but only after they have paid their political levy to the political fat cats that allow them to amass such huge sums of money.

[TDK1044]

There's a difference between profit and profit margin. I think when you understand the totality of the figures involved, the oil companies are making healthy but not excessive profits.

[AVGWarhawk]

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 .

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

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.

[The WosMan]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

I think they'll be more chance of them getting bit on the bottom by a cabbage

There should be a windfall tax imposed on these gigantic fuel companies as soon as they reach a predetermined profit threshold.....but only after they have paid their political levy to the political fat cats that allow them to amass such huge sums of money.

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.

[jumpy]

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

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

[The WosMan]

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?

[Ducimus]

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.

[bradclark1]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

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.

Yes. Thats whats ticking me off. Oil is more available this year then last by 12% yet they are pleading supply and demand while reaping record profits and frankly I don't give a ???? about somebodies 401k.

[Tchocky]

Of course you're going to have a higher supply of oil, look at the price of the stuff!

EDIT - the other factor is the more interesting one. I wonder how much it costs to insure millions of dollars worth of oil and tanker through the Strait of Hormuz? I wonder how much it cost before Operation Iraqi Freedom?

EDIT #2 - Found a nice article by the author of OilShock - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/m.../03/do0311.xml

in the process of reading it, thought it was relevant