America is under attack! By "Big Oil"! (Representatives, gas prices, gallon)

[Reads2MUCH]

Hello folks, woke up this morning to find gas in my area had gone up another .50 to .70 cent since yesterday. Isn't it amazing how the prices began to rise before the storm ever hit, and continue to rise before they even know the extent of any damage. As usual your friendly neighborhood oil companies have taken tragedy as an opportunity to scalp us on the price of gasoline. Funny how this has only become a trend since Katrina. Before that countless storms have crossed the Gulf with little or no effect on the price of gas. Seems to me the oil giants are simply attacking us because they think they can. And they are talking about prices going up even further. In Raleigh, NC this morning I spotted a station with gas going for $4.79 a gallon. This is up .60 from the price they posted yesterday, which had also risen .50 or .60 cent. Now we are hearing we can possibly expect more increases to possibly the $6.00 a gallon level by the end of the week. Funny how the gas that was already in the ground and bought for cheaper prices is still being sold to us at drastically higher prices. I really think it is time we stop sitting back and taking this kind of abuse simply because we are so dependent on gas. They cannot be allowed to pull these kinds of shenanigans at their every whim and get away with it without a scratch. And I'll bet they will be posting new record profits when its time for the quarterly reviews. We need to put pressure on our "representative" government to finally step up and do something about this or we need to "remove" these representatives because they are obviously not doing their job or acting in our best interests. And please, feel free to comment but don't take the side of the oil companies folks. There is absolutely no excuse for what they are doing other than they want to make some huge profits with a storm as their excuse. They do not deserve your pity or sympathy, they deserve your anger and distrust. They have been holding the blade to the guillotine over our heads long enough. Its time to take the rope from their hands!

[Reads2MUCH]

100%

[calmdude]

I am not a big fan of oil companies. BUT, the fact is that like any other industry, they will play the hand they are dealt. Recall 6 yrs ago, I did not see anyone complain why a gallon of drinking water cost about the same as a gallon of gas. No one wanted to drill or build new refineries. In terms of profits, do you realise that they make lower profit margins than many industries. Media says "record profits' - this is becaue they are talking about record revenues. The big oil comtrols less reserves than it ever did. You need to look at percentages. Microsoft is more of a "monopoly" than oil companies - do you feel you need to end over when you buy Microsot Office?. Now I agree we should not be giving oil companies incentives, but that is something we need to talk to the politicians about. Also, government needs to seriously look into the very quick price swings you mentioned - they have gouged us many times in the past. Let us take a balanced approach.

[evilnewbie]

We need independence from all oil... not just foreign but also domestic... the "drill more here" is crap... its not going to help you... its Big Business trying to PROLONG your dependence on oil...

[Reads2MUCH]

Originally Posted by calmdude

I am not a big fan of oil companies. BUT, the fact is that like any other industry, they will play the hand they are dealt. Recall 6 yrs ago, I did not see anyone complain why a gallon of drinking water cost about the same as a gallon of gas. No one wanted to drill or build new refineries. In terms of profits, do you realise that they make lower profit margins than many industries. Media says "record profits' - this is becaue they are talking about record revenues. The big oil comtrols less reserves than it ever did. You need to look at percentages. Microsoft is more of a "monopoly" than oil companies - do you feel you need to end over when you buy Microsot Office?. Now I agree we should not be giving oil companies incentives, but that is something we need to talk to the politicians about. Also, government needs to seriously look into the very quick price swings you mentioned - they have gouged us many times in the past. Let us take a balanced approach.

OK, calmdude I see where you are trying to go here. But here is the thing, wether its Big Oil or small subsidiaries they all work together in the arena of pricing and gouging. As far as Microsoft goes, they are not an adaquate example of a monopoly because there are many software companies out there, and they do not work together to attain equal pricing on their goods. They compete with one another for your business and thus fall short of monopolizing anything. Just because Microsoft controls a large part of the market, it doesn't equal a monopoly. As far as your water comparison, I don't know where you are located but where I am from water has never even come close to surpassing the price of gasoline. Unless you are using the price of a bottle of water at the gas station to give you your figures. 6 years ago I could use anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 gallons of premium drinking water in a month and only pay 30 to 40 dollars. And while it is true they are taking in record revenues, this also equates to record profits. And none of these things have any bearing on the fact that oil companies are taking advantage of us. It may be the way the business world works these days but there was a time when morals still had a place in the business world. Just not anymore.

[swagger]

Originally Posted by Reads2MUCH

As far as Microsoft goes, they are not an adaquate example of a monopoly because there are many software companies out there, and they do not work together to attain equal pricing on their goods. They compete with one another for your business and thus fall short of monopolizing anything. Just because Microsoft controls a large part of the market, it doesn't equal a monopoly.

You have more choices in which oil company you want to buy from than you do for choosing a desktop operating system. Microsoft has no significant competition.

Gas prices are going up because there is less supply. According to a report I heard on the radio yesterday, there are stations in the south that are literally out of gas to sell. Don't forget, we had a hurricane blow through the gulf just a couple of weeks ago, and that affected supply as well.

[Reads2MUCH]

Originally Posted by swagger

You have more choices in which oil company you want to buy from than you do for choosing a desktop operating system. Microsoft has no significant competition.

Gas prices are going up because there is less supply. According to a report I heard on the radio yesterday, there are stations in the south that are literally out of gas to sell. Don't forget, we had a hurricane blow through the gulf just a couple of weeks ago, and that affected supply as well.

The oil companies don't have competition either. Just because there are different names on the stations doesn't change the fact that the prices are relatively the same because they all work together. Also, computers may be a part of some people's lives that they can't do without, but not everyone has to have Microsoft programs and software in order to go about their daily lives. On the other hand the majority of people living in the United States depend on oil as their means of fuel for transportation. We essentially cannot live without it at this particular time in history. And yes, I understand there have been storms. My question is why is this all of a sudden a problem. Do you realize how many storms have travelled through the Gulf in the last 50 years. And this problem never arose until Katrina. And the main reason stations are out of fuel is because they caused a panic and everyone and their brother went out and filled up all of their vehicles, every spare gas jug they had, and any other container they could find. I saw it myself yesterday riding through 3 different towns. We did exactly as they wanted us to do.

[Cincinnatus]

Originally Posted by evilnewbie

We need independence from all oil... not just foreign but also domestic... the "drill more here" is crap... its not going to help you... its Big Business trying to PROLONG your dependence on oil...

.. I think you don`t understand anything ....
the US Dollar lost more then 50 % in the last years ... this is , why we have the republicans in Washington ..
what do you think why the OPEC wanted to change to the Euro and don`t want the US $ ...
think about this ..
the price of Gas in European is not going up .. ...

[KevinM782]

Originally Posted by Reads2MUCH

Hello folks, woke up this morning to find gas in my area had gone up another .50 to .70 cent since yesterday. Isn't it amazing how the prices began to rise before the storm ever hit, and continue to rise before they even know the extent of any damage. As usual your friendly neighborhood oil companies have taken tragedy as an opportunity to scalp us on the price of gasoline. Funny how this has only become a trend since Katrina. Before that countless storms have crossed the Gulf with little or no effect on the price of gas. Seems to me the oil giants are simply attacking us because they think they can. And they are talking about prices going up even further. In Raleigh, NC this morning I spotted a station with gas going for $4.79 a gallon. This is up .60 from the price they posted yesterday, which had also risen .50 or .60 cent. Now we are hearing we can possibly expect more increases to possibly the $6.00 a gallon level by the end of the week. Funny how the gas that was already in the ground and bought for cheaper prices is still being sold to us at drastically higher prices. I really think it is time we stop sitting back and taking this kind of abuse simply because we are so dependent on gas. They cannot be allowed to pull these kinds of shenanigans at their every whim and get away with it without a scratch. And I'll bet they will be posting new record profits when its time for the quarterly reviews. We need to put pressure on our "representative" government to finally step up and do something about this or we need to "remove" these representatives because they are obviously not doing their job or acting in our best interests. And please, feel free to comment but don't take the side of the oil companies folks. There is absolutely no excuse for what they are doing other than they want to make some huge profits with a storm as their excuse. They do not deserve your pity or sympathy, they deserve your anger and distrust. They have been holding the blade to the guillotine over our heads long enough. Its time to take the rope from their hands!

Of course prices rise before a storm hits. Do you think people and businesses wait around until after the storm hits to stock up on fuel??? No, they all go out and buy early anticipating a shortage later on thereby driving up the price earlier.

Secondly, gas station owners have to raise prices early. They know that they will need more money to purchase their next supply of gasoline because it will be more expensive. Otherwise they would have to take out a loan, incurring interest charges.

Fuel prices have been affected in the past by hurricanes. Remember Hurricane Andrew? The price rise from that wasn't as memorable because fuel prices were lower to begin with and there was less drilling in the Gulf back then. Also, we have had more big storms go through the Gulf in recent years.

Anyone that believes that any of the U.S. oil companies control the price of oil is very uninformed. Do you realize that all of the U.S. oil companies combined only control about 6% of the world's oil??? Most of the world's oil is controlled by the nationalized oil companies of the world like Saudi Aramco and Gazprom.

If you are worried about record profits for the oil companies, are you also worried about record tax receipts from oil companies to the government? Exxon paid over $10.5 billion in income taxes this past quarter alone. Remember, they pass that on to you so that money is coming out of your pocket, not theirs.

Finally gas prices are rising because the refiners have been in terrible shape lately. Even at these high prices they have been losing money! (Just check the stock prices of the refineries for the past year and you'll see what I mean) You should actually feel lucky that you haven't been paying for a normal spread on gasoline.

[paullySC]

Originally Posted by Cincinnatus

.. I think you don`t understand anything ....
the US Dollar lost more then 50 % in the last years ... this is , why we have the republicans in Washington ..
what do you think why the OPEC wanted to change to the Euro and don`t want the US $ ...
think about this ..
the price of Gas in European is not going up .. ...

Gas in England is 14 dollars a gallon.