so whatya gonna do?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')UST in case anyone still believes it's an accident oil companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron and BP and Shell have achieved record profits quarter after quarter during the last few years, here's some information that will utterly debunk such naive thinking:
As of early spring, crude oil prices were several pennies lower per gallon this year than last year. But the pump price of gasoline was considerably higher. In February, the average California price of $2.81 was nearly 24 cents higher than a year earlier and 45 cents above the national average. In early April, the average California price of $3.29 was 62 cents over the national average.
Today's price of over $3.46 has already topped the previous average statewide high of $3.38 per gallon, with no signs of a ceiling in sight.
How can this be happening when oil companies continually tell us, their customers, that fluctuations in the price of crude and refinery problems are the major impetus for changes in their pump prices?
Easy. It's called gouging.
As long as no significant gasoline retailer breaks ranks and the price at the pump remains fairly constant from one street corner to the next within a region, there is no reason for
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oil companies not to raise prices. So they do.
That's how ExxonMobil made a record $9 billion profit during the third quarter of last year (with yearly profits of about half the entire budget of the state of California, to put it into perspective).
But Exxon's profits dropped a tad in the fourth quarter, you might note. So did those of the rest of Big Oil.
The reason for that was clear and fairly well documented: Oil companies last fall did all they could to keep Republicans in the majority in Congress because no matter how high prices went during its reign, the GOP never did a thing to rein them in. No hearings questioning oil company executives about their pricing practices. No anti-gouging bills. Nothing.
And historically, when gasoline prices drop during the fall political season, the party in power stays there. So - surprise - prices dropped from last summer's peak average of $3.38 for a gallon of unleaded regular to about $2.20 just before Election Day last November.
The prediction here then was that prices would rise gradually starting the week after the election. And they did, quickly.
PeakOil is You
Big Oil screws it's Americans. Whatya gonna do?
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Big Oil screws it's Americans. Whatya gonna do?
by KevO » Sun 13 May 2007, 06:04:18
http://www.dailynews.com/theiropinion/ci_5881835
.
Last edited by KevO on Sun 13 May 2007, 06:50:19, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Big Oil screws it's American citizens
by Tanada » Sun 13 May 2007, 06:28:55
Someone needs to educate this conspiracy theorist about oil refineries and what the actual supply/demand balance sheet for our current situation looks like. Claiming a physical shortage is gouging just inflames the emotions of the readers without giving them the information they need to understand what, why, where and how.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Alfred Tennyson', 'W')e are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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Re: Big Oil screws it's American citizens
by KevO » Sun 13 May 2007, 06:47:19
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Today's price of over $3.46 has already topped the previous average statewide high of $3.38 per gallon, with no signs of a ceiling in sight.
')Today's price of over $3.46 has already topped the previous average statewide high of $3.38 per gallon, with no signs of a ceiling in sight.
It's the same in the UK, but the moaning and talk of blockades is again a topic of conversation as our gas hits £1 a litre ($9 a gallon - that's $9 _a gallon_)
The UK goverment nearly fell after only 6 days, when fuel depots were blockaded last time see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/922906.stm
but if the US citizens did the same, and maintained it for three weeks, the effects would be greater than 911 and bring the BIG oil/peak oil debate into everyones living rooms.
only takes one acorn
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Re: Big Oil screws it's American citizens
by Newsseeker » Sun 13 May 2007, 09:29:21
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'S')omeone needs to educate this conspiracy theorist about oil refineries and what the actual supply/demand balance sheet for our current situation looks like. Claiming a physical shortage is gouging just inflames the emotions of the readers without giving them the information they need to understand what, why, where and how.
Right you are old chap!
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