CingularDuality

Hell, I'm just glad that you admitted that "Big Oil" isn't gouging and that it's simply a personal interest that makes you want lower gas prices.

The crap that I'm hearing in Congress and in the media disgusts me...

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TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

xTYBALTx

I see a lot of implicated misconduct against oil companies (both here and in the everyday media) and nothing to back it up. Sounds like a witch hunt to me.

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AMosely

I agree that the oil companies do not appear to be the problem here, but on the other hand, the government has the right to look into it, and they are doing so based on an uninformed, confused and mis-perceived public outcry.

From my perspective, the rising prices are mostly because of fears in the market. The price of oil is determined in daily public market activity, and over the past several years demand has been outpacing supply, leading to a very sensitive market. Since we started fighting wars in the Middle East, the market has been full of fear and speculation, which cause overbuying, which causes prices to rise.

It's a bad situation from top to bottom. The only question is whether government intervention can do anything to help it, and whether this is worth the cost to the industry in terms of capping profits and therefore stifling growth - something desparately needed.

AMosely

If the government is going to step in, I think they should aim to lessen if not stop the impact that public trading and investment has on oil prices. I'm not an economist, but if the rising prices of a certain commodity are having widespread negative effects on the economy, investors should not be able to profit from the situation unless their profits are put right back into the oil or energy industry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/29/bu...29traders.html

Drizzid

Until the US starts drilling for oil in Alaska then the market will stay this way. If the US can become independent of Mideastern oil then that would lower oil and gas prices world wide. The US could actually compete with the middle eastern countries to create better prices for everyone. JMHO

All this talk about alternative fuels is all lip service in my opinion it will take years and years to implement it into circulation.

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Diablo

Down here in texas where i live I know alot of farmers that have producing oil wells on there property that have been paid off not to have there wells pumped by the oil companys ! I don't know why they were paid off but i think it was to bump up the price of oil myself !

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Pokerface

Here's the disconnect the American people have:
1) Gas prices are higher.
2) The BELIEF (well-founded or not) is that supply and demand is in effect. So if the price is high, supply must be low; I think it's relatively safe to say that demand has been net level over this timeframe.
3) The BELIEF is that it rising cost goes clean up the production chain. So if I'm paying twice as much, so is my gas station owner, so is the distributor, right on up to the oil company.
4) Given 2 and 3, we expect the whole chain to be suffering right along with those at the end, and are thus flabbergasted when oil companies are posting record profits.

Tack on to #4 oil companies posting those record profits and then trying to downplay them, and you have a recipe for mistrust.

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ScratchMonkey

The aggregate value doesn't matter. It's the percentage that matters. That profit gets redistributed over all investors, like the old ladies with pension funds that invest in those stocks.

Instead of bitching about the oil companies' profit, buy their stock and get in on the gravy train. That makes you an owner, and you then have a say in how the company is operated.

And if you still don't like how much profit is being made, you can take your share and donate it to your local school.

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CingularDuality

Not only that, but let's examine the percentage of the price of a $3 gallon of gas that is actually taxes.

We also can't forget the years that US oil companies were making much less, or were even losing money...

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TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

=DdogG=

I truly can't understand all the whining about prices....

the only price that did not budge for 20 years was gas.... it was ~.95 to ~1.09 from 1980 to 2000.

the average cost of a car in that same time frame tripled (the cheapest new car could be had in 1980 for about 4499.... in 2000, the cheapest new car was 11,900) most everything rose steadily with inflation EXCEPT gas, now that the price has caught up with time, people are freaking. had it rose .10 a year from 1980 till now, no one would say a word.... its just the cost of inflation.

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CingularDuality

Yeah, I heard some stats on the radio the other day that said that gas had risen like 50% since the 60's, while the average of all consumer goods had risen 60%, or something like that. The rise in gas prices was below the average for every other consumer good.

Those numbers can't be right, but for some reason, that's what I remember... Weird...

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TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

Wulfyn

wow... listening to Americans complain about high gas prices is almost too good.

average here 97p / litre and rising... ($6.76 / US Gallon i make that)

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leejo

You won't hear me bitch! That's my inheritance we're talking about. AND my little brother works in the corporate finance and securities practice for the firm that handles the most Oil & Gas IPOs in the world, so I expect a NICE Christmas present from him this year. Plus all these companies in Houston are flush with cash and are hiring IT consultants, such as myself, in droves.

Casa leejo is in high cotton these days.

.143 Beth©

To reply to the comment regarding boycotting a few major gas companies( Amoco, BP, Exxon):
Boycotting a select few large gasoline companies would not help to reduce gas prices because they would then sell their gas in other venues such as "no-name brand" gas chains, and industrial applications. Oil companies have ways to get around those things. In addition, I doubt it would catch on nationwide. The idea could work, but I doubt the public would follow through.

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Wulfyn

I think Beth is spot on here. In fact the best way to fight high gas prices is to lobby your local politician to get your government to divert more cash to the development of new technologies, and more importantly to the development of the infrastructure to support the new technologies (tax breaks, subsidies to car manufacturers for fitting the new system etc).

If you could buy gas for $1.50 for 20 miles or an alternative source at $.50 for 20 miles I think it is clear where you would go. Develop the alternatives and let the consumer make the choice.

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