Reply
Thu 27 Oct, 2005 09:34 am
I for one, now refuse to buy gas at Exxon because of this...
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=uri:2005-10-27T144014Z_01_ROB743705_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENERGY-EXXON-EARNS.xml&pageNumber=0&summit=
Hopefully the link works. If not, it's a Reuters news column announcing that Exxon Mobile has just posted a quarterly profit of $9.9 Billion, the largest in U.S. corporate history, as it raked in a bonanza from record oil and gas prices!
Please tell me if I have the wrong idea about this... I can understand gas prices to be ANY price, as long as that price is relative to the cost of producing it. However, when these GIANT oil companies raise their profit margins to EXTREME levels, and we (the consumers) are led to believe the high prices are due to short supplies, it makes me furious!
I am beginning to believe we must have "mark-up" regulations on certain industries... gasoline being one! We ALL must use gasoline to keep the economy going. What is keeping these giant oil companies from doubling (or tripling) their gas prices just so they can be even larger and more profitable. Apparently, we are powerless as consumers to keep their margins in check!
For some reason, when I copy and paste the link, it does not link right.
You can go to
www.reuters.com and click on "Business" news. It is currently the top story.
Sell less stuff; get more money. How can they lose?
I wanna some of my $3.00 a gallon back dirty SOB's
And there rebuttal would be.
They should be allowed to make such big profits because when gas prices are lower they can lose money. (Which translates too they don't make nearly as much.)
I have the perfect solution (HaHa)... Someone who is willing and able should offer gasoline to the American public at cost plus 10% for five years for a single payment of $500 today. Given there are about 300,000,000 people in the U.S., if just half the people paid the $500, the funds would total about $75,000,000,000. With that much money, the person could probably buy Exxon Mobile, and keep some profits. Everyone that paid the $500 would be issued a "credit card" type account to charge their gas with. The statements would be adjusted to reflect just 10% over cost for the gas. If someone didn't pay the bill, they loose the account and reduced gas prices. One card issued per account, so if you have 4 family members, 4 cards would be needed. Every couple of years, the $500 offer could be repeated.
I know... it's way out there, but I wonder if it could be made to work (just a thought).
Boycotting only Exxon Mobil won't do much good. I heard this story on the news and it was mentioned that the other big US oil company (did you know that with all the recent mergers, there are really only two major oil companies left now?) came pretty close to making a profit that is almost just as obscene. The thing is, we're back to the days of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. The whole petrochemical industry is in the process of becoming a monopoly once again. It wouldn't surprise me one tiny bit if it turned out that some of what we fondly think are small independent oil products producers really turned out to be subsidiaries of the giants. With the conglomerates being what they are today, it's almost impossible to unravel who owns what or has tie-ins with which other coporation. Your idea is wonderful, Buffalo. I mean the one about an entrepreneur offering gasoline for cost plus 10 percent for a down-payment of $500. Problem is, anyone tried that, they'd be quickly acquired by one of the big boys via a hostile takeover. And anyone who has that kind of money to invest in a bold enterprise knows this and wouldn't even try it.
Where's my courtesy reach around?
I've stopped using my Exxon-Mobile and Chevron-Texaco cards. Instead, I use my mastercard at small gas stations, preferrably those of Seven-Eleven stores which sell CITGO gasoline from Venezuela.
It's supply and demand. Thing to do is bump up the supply. Head up to ANWR, ignore the caribou, and start drilling. There's a ton of it there, so I hear.
Problem with that one, Tico -- apart from any considerations of wildlife and eco-system damage -- is that domestic oil, especially if it has to be hauled that long a distance, is far more expensive than the Arab or Venezuelan variety. Drillers and roughnecks and tanker hands and the rest of the crew are all union members and it costs a hell of a lot more to use our own oil than to import the cheap stuff from overseas where oil field workers are lucky to earn what we would consider minimum wage.
Quote:the cheap stuff from overseas where oil field workers are lucky to earn what we would consider minimum wage
Even with the US Marines
("From the halls of Kuwait City, to the wells of South Iraq, We'll fight for massive profits, Of the American Oil Elite...") on your side? Ungrateful wretches, lying down and dying whilst Exxon and Shell and the like are only making huge profits?! They
should be OBSCENE profits!!
Ticomaya wrote:It's supply and demand. Thing to do is bump up the supply. Head up to ANWR, ignore the caribou, and start drilling. There's a ton of it there, so I hear.
This is specious, and politically motivated claptrap which seeks to allow the greedy to exploit marginal resources to their own private profit. The demand for gasoline has increased in the last decade while refinery capacity has decreased. Gasoline prices have less to do with the price of crude--an excuse used by the energy industry exploiters--than the does the willingness of the American public to submit to the exploitation.
Two weeks ago, i paid $2.84/gal to tank up. Yesterday morning, i paid $1.99/gal. to tank up. There's a gas war on in that town. The price at the pump almost never has anything to do with the cost of the spot market for crude, and opening up ANWR will only line the pockets of the greedy and irresponsible at the expense of the nation's heritage.
Setanta wrote:Ticomaya wrote:It's supply and demand. Thing to do is bump up the supply. Head up to ANWR, ignore the caribou, and start drilling. There's a ton of it there, so I hear.
This is specious, and politically motivated claptrap which seeks to allow the greedy to exploit marginal resources to their own private profit. The demand for gasoline has increased in the last decade while refinery capacity has decreased. Gasoline prices have less to do with the price of crude--and excuse used by the energy industry exploiters--than the does the willingness of the American public to submit to the exploitation.
Two weeks ago, i paid $2.84/gal to tank up. Yesterday morning, i paid $1.99/gal. to tank up. There's a gas war on in that town. The price at the pump almost never has anything to do with the cost of the spot market for crude, and opening up ANWR will only line the pockets of the greedy and irresponsible at the expense of the nation's heritage.
Hi, Set. Good to see you.
I forgot to mention that we need to construct more and newer refineries as well.
Set wrote:... at the expense of the nation's heritage.
I'm sure the caribou will survive.
Ticomaya wrote:I'm sure the caribou will survive.
I'm not, and that's not the only issue. Attempting to reduce the question to an oversimplified silly remark in order to belittle the justifiable concerns of others won't fly. When north slope petroleum was finally being pumped, it was found to be of such low quality as to be fit largely only to be sold for marine bunker oil. There is no reason to assume that petroleum from ANWR will be of a higher quality--and absent positive action to increase refinery capacity, the effect of such an operation will be, once again, to line the pockets of a few at the expense of the many. There is no good reason to assume that ANWR can help meet our gasoline needs (blowing up all the SUV's would help a great deal more), and every good reason to tell the selfish individuals concerned (Cheney/Bush cronies) to piss off.
Your solution is what? Blow up all the SUVs? You think that "oversimplified silly remark" is cogent?
Sure our country needs to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, but until that happens, we ought to drill all the oil we can -- because we need gasoline. Of course leftie environmentalists will scream and moan, as they always do. New refineries might be able to refine that lower quality stuff, and the result of that would be to reduce prices.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace