Who is mostly to blame for the high gas prices?

[dragonslayer]

Like I already said there is no shortage of oil.........We just don't have the refineries ti process it thanks to the god damn whacko environmentalists...................

I am not an evironmentlist, but what your saying is that is all right for my grand children to die from environmentally caused poisoned air, land and water?

 

[Navy Pride]

I am not an evironmentlist, but what your saying is that is all right for my grand children to die from environmentally caused poisoned air, land and water?

Yeah, right, preach doom and gloom...:roll: come up with some talking left wing whacko talking points..............those are getting stale as hell......

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

As you can see, the federal government makes 18.3 cents off of every gallon sold, and the state governments make an average of 23.6 cents off every gallon sold.

That works out to an average of 41.9 cents per gallon of gas we buy going to the government.

Now from what I've heard, these "big oil" companies make ~8-9 cents profit from each gallon sold.

Of that, some goes to taxes, some goes into research, etc. Although I may be wrong and that amount is after taxes and such.

"Profit" is the difference between revenues and expenses. Taxes are part of the expense.

But if crude oil costs $75 a barrel, and there's 55 gallons in a barrel, that means crude oil costs $1.36 a gallon, before processing. Now, the government is taking fifty cents out of that $3.00 you're paying for gas, so the real cost at the pump before the parasites hit is $2.50.

Now, the cost to get to the pump from the inlet valve of the refinery includes capital investment in the refinery, upkeep, insurance, wages, and their taxes. There's transportation costs, both the pipelines and the shipping, and the trucks to get it to the gas station. Then there's the cost the gas station owner has to cover, wages, insurance, TAXES (property, payroll taxes, etc), upkeep.

It's not unreasonable to expect transportation costs to be more than a buck per gallon, heck, it only costs a dime to pick a head of lettuce, yet that costs almost two bucks at the store. Why should gas be different.

So blaming the oil companies for a profit margin on the order of 5% is absurd, and merely illustrates how the ignorance of the mob can be used to direct the ire of the mob away from the true problem, government and the environmentalists who use government to stifle the economy.

 

[dragonslayer]

Yeah, right, preach doom and gloom...:roll: come up with some talking left wing whacko talking points..............those are getting stale as hell......

Preach doom and Gloom? You are a strange person or you are just in this forum to confuse and deceive. what is gloom and doom about the fact that the Ross Ice shelf is melting, the polar ice is melting, the hole in the ozone layer is growing, we are running out of clean water all over the world.. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising steadily.

We are spending 3 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, for profits of oil companies.

Bush and the Neo Cons = runaway spending and Greed. Democrats fight war for defense. - Roosevelt, Wilson, Truman

Neo cons have their first war, and they are fighting for exxon. Neo cons bitch about democratic spending to take care of America's people, and then out spend the worse the democrats have ever done in a phony war for greed.

When are we gonna get back to the terrorists problem? Bush talks and talks and then invades Iraq just to please Exxon.

 

[akyron]

Bush talks and talks and then invades Iraq just to please Exxon.

Is there prescription medication for BDS?

Oil companies want social and economic stability and war is instability.

The oil business is too dependant on in hand capital and planning ahead using investments to deal with crap like ieds showing up in your 1 in 10 drilling site.

Big oil fears war.

And congressional irresponsibility is responsible for high prices. What comes around goes around for like 15 years now.

 

[Goobieman]

"Profit" is the difference between revenues and expenses. Taxes are part of the expense.

But if crude oil costs $75 a barrel, and there's 55 gallons in a barrel, that means crude oil costs $1.36 a gallon, before processing. Now, the government is taking fifty cents out of that $3.00 you're paying for gas, so the real cost at the pump before the parasites hit is $2.50.

Note:
A standard US barrel, oil or otherwise, is 55 gallons.
A barrel of oil on the international market is 42 gallons/159L

$70/bbl = $1.66/gallon

Oil companies make about $0.09 per gallon of gas. Some state governments make more than 3x that amount. But hey - lets demonize the oil companies!!

 

[ALiberalModerate]

Yeah, right, preach doom and gloom...:roll: come up with some talking left wing whacko talking points..............those are getting stale as hell......

Why do you think that since the formation of the EPA and the environmental movement, that we don't have rivers catching on fire anymore? Or that the air is cleaner today that it was then? Do you think this is just an accident?

 

[ALiberalModerate]

Note:
A standard US barrel, oil or otherwise, is 55 gallons.
A barrel of oil on the international market is 42 gallons/159L

$70/bbl = $1.66/gallon

Oil companies make about $0.09 per gallon of gas. Some state governments make more than 3x that amount. But hey - lets demonize the oil companies!!

Actually, oil companies earn 8 to 9 cents on the dollar, not per gallon of gas.

 

[Navy Pride]

Preach doom and Gloom? You are a strange person or you are just in this forum to confuse and deceive. what is gloom and doom about the fact that the Ross Ice shelf is melting, the polar ice is melting, the hole in the ozone layer is growing, we are running out of clean water all over the world.. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising steadily.

We are spending 3 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, for profits of oil companies.

Bush and the Neo Cons = runaway spending and Greed. Democrats fight war for defense. - Roosevelt, Wilson, Truman

Neo cons have their first war, and they are fighting for exxon. Neo cons bitch about democratic spending to take care of America's people, and then out spend the worse the democrats have ever done in a phony war for greed.

When are we gonna get back to the terrorists problem? Bush talks and talks and then invades Iraq just to please Exxon.

Yeah and in 1972 the same tree huggers that are predicting global warming were predicting a new Ice Age..........

 

[Calm2Chaos]

Shouldn'tthe cost of gas be placed precisley in one spot? I mean you can blame everybody in the world but the cause for high gas prices was not on this poll IMO. Blame the oil producing nation that set the price and use supply and demand to gouge it higher. I heard yesterday that the oil company's make 8.5 cents on the dollar for every gallon of gas. The rest goes to taxes tariffs and pruchase and refining. What makes people think that Oil companies have the abillity to manipulate crude prices coming from the oil producing nations, they set the price don't they?

If you want to lower prices you have start drillling in this country were there is oil. You have to start investing serious time and money into alternate fuels. And people have to be a little smarter in what cars they buy and how often they drive them. And finally.... You have to secure by whatever means Neccesary a resonable oil supplier. The fact is as a nation we need oil.. not just for transportaion but also industry. If our economy takes a flush... so does everyone else.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

I the Bush idiot is making noises about a "temporary" abatement of taxes on gasoline.

Won't ever happen. Never.

Why?

Because it would drop the price of gas by fifty cents, which would tell all be the most stupid voter that the biggest gouger at the pump isn't Exxon, it's government.

And...

What happens when they government tries to put the tax back?

So the government makes fifty cents at the pump, the oil companies make less than half-that, and the government will continue to blame the oil companies for "gouging".

And the stupid people will continue to rail at the evil oil companies.

 

[LeftyHenry]

I the Bush idiot is making noises about a "temporary" abatement of taxes on gasoline.

Won't ever happen. Never.

Why?

Because it would drop the price of gas by fifty cents, which would tell all be the most stupid voter that the biggest gouger at the pump isn't Exxon, it's government.

And...

What happens when they government tries to put the tax back?

So the government makes fifty cents at the pump, the oil companies make less than half-that, and the government will continue to blame the oil companies for "gouging".

And the stupid people will continue to rail at the evil oil companies.

Ever think that the government is using that tax to run this nation while Exxon is just sitting on it's fat ***. Both are to blame, because they both jip us out of a **** load of money.

 

[dragonslayer]

Is there prescription medication for BDS?

Oil companies want social and economic stability and war is instability.

The oil business is too dependant on in hand capital and planning ahead using investments to deal with crap like ieds showing up in your 1 in 10 drilling site.

Big oil fears war.

And congressional irresponsibility is responsible for high prices. What comes around goes around for like 15 years now.

Oil Companies may say they want stability in order to dupe the American people, but they are getting rich off of war and its outcome. One of the main reasons they use for High oil prices, is the war, when they are not covering up by saying oil prices are caused by the world market which they have no control over. That is pure bull ****. Oil Company kings and princes control the market to their own advantage. The New World Royalty is controlled by greed and lust for power.

congressional irrisponsibilty is now and the radical Right Wing is under the control of the Corporate Kings.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

Ever think that the government is using that tax to run this nation while Exxon is just sitting on it's fat ***. Both are to blame, because they both jip us out of a **** load of money.

Yeah, I thought of that, then the drugs wore off and I woke up.

The government uses the taxes for the most part to provide "services" most people don't need or want. A portion of the gasoline taxes goes to road and highway development, but, at 18 cents a gallon, one pork project in Alaska worth $230,000,000 wasted the taxes paid on 23 million barrels of gasoline.

So much for the wonderful things done with my tax dollars.

But those evil profits made by Exxon? Wow...There are more than 6 billion shares of stock issued. That means the whopping $10 billion dollar profit Exxon showed comes out to around a humongous $1.50 per share. Of course, a share of Exxon stock costs about as much as a barrel of oil, so that buck fifty is the effective return on $65 investment, or a GIGANTIC 2.3 percent return. Those greedy evil bastards at Exxon. Imagine them stealing a buck and a half from the kind generous government.

Of course, the kind generous nice lovely government wastes...dammit, I mean INVESTS it's money...no, MY money...on crap. Total crap. It's so easy to be generous and kind and loverly, you see, when you're spending someone else's money.

The EVIL GREEDY sunofabitch fat Exxon investor...he's just going to take his huge buck and a half and burn it. Of course. That's what all rich greedy basically mostly middle class americans saving their money and investing in the stock market do with their returns. Who could ever imagine them buying houses...employing dozens of other Americans and invaders for each home built...or putting clothes on their kids...or feeding themselves...and all the parasites riding on them from Old Farts on Socialist Security to Drug Addicts For Kerry, oh, and that buck fifty turns out to be a buck and a quarter, or a buck and a dime, since Uncle Sam gets a cut of that, too. Twice.

Those evil nasty Exxon investors. Even the profit that isn't converted to dividends does more than that bridge in Alaska. What's Exxon going to do with it? Sit on it? NO, Exxon will prospect for new oil, maintain refineries, fix pipelines, pay to clean up penguins in Prince Free Willy Sound, and other things related to growing it's business.

Government will continue to build quarter billion dollar bridges to serve a dozen people, because that's what governments do when hordes of idiots think governments are more reliable than businesses.

 

[Chris]

Unfortunately I'd have to say that we are mostly to blame. The oil companies are simply taking advantage of our huge energy demands.

Personally I think one of the US's biggest problems is the fact that you guys are so dependant on one source of energy (oil and gas) for so much of your power. In Canada we at least have the advantage of having a more diverse mix (oil and gas, nuclear, and hydro-electric). Pump prices are still terrible though.

 

[ALiberalModerate]

Unfortunately I'd have to say that we are mostly to blame. The oil companies are simply taking advantage of our huge energy demands.

Personally I think one of the US's biggest problems is the fact that you guys are so dependant on one source of energy (oil and gas) for so much of your power. In Canada we at least have the advantage of having a more diverse mix (oil and gas, nuclear, and hydro-electric). Pump prices are still terrible though.

Finally a voice of reason.

 

[LeftyHenry]

You're kidding me Scarecrow, right? You don't think there's anything wrong with Exxon making record profits, emptying our wallets, and keeping their workers wages the same? I think it's wrong. You can talk all that crap aboutr it's good for the investors and finding new oil but there's a con to all that. Real working class families are getting mugged of hard earned money and we're just increasing our dependence on oil.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

You're kidding me Scarecrow, right? You don't think there's anything wrong with Exxon making record profits, emptying our wallets, and keeping their workers wages the same? I think it's wrong. You can talk all that crap aboutr it's good for the investors and finding new oil but there's a con to all that. Real working class families are getting mugged of hard earned money and we're just increasing our dependence on oil.

No, there's nothing wrong with it at all. You're simply letting your bias blind you. Businesses are in business to make profits for their stockholders, not to worry about your personal finances. That's the world of freedom. The stockholders are mostly middle class people working for a living and supporting socialist parasites.

Want to make the life of working class people easier? End the subsidies of socialist parasites.

Besides,

State control of resources raises oil costsA principal reason fuel prices are high and likely to remain so is a trend worldwide toward state ownership and control of oil resources that is raising questions about how quickly large tracts of oil and gas will be developed and made available to consumers.
While some state-owned oil companies, such as Saudi Arabia's Aramco, readily develop their vast oil reserves to help hold down prices and satisfy the demands of consuming nations, other major tracts of oil have fallen into the hands of governments that are less attuned or outright hostile to pleas from drivers around the world who want them to continue the flow of cheap and readily available fuel.

It's not the Exxon's causing the problems.

 

[alphieb]

Everybody just has to have an SUV......why????????? I guess because the Jones do.

 

[alphieb]

Why can't we use corn as a second source of energy? I would like to know.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

Everybody just has to have an SUV......why????????? I guess because the Jones do.

I don't know about anyone else, but I drive my V8 beasty of a full size van because it's taller than almost all the other passenger vehicles on the road. So I can see the openings in the traffic much better.

It's got a lot of lovely horse tucked inside it, and it's really huge, which makes the intimidation factor work wonders on yuppies in BMW's. Not to mention the surprise factor when this bus can just leap forward and take a lane.

And it only cost me $6,000, which is about $20,000 less than a stupid hybrid. To make up that twenty grand in savings on gas prices, I'd have to drive about 130,000 miles, which would take about ten years or so.

Besides, since I don't have a hybrid, I'm immune from smug.

See, many reasons why people should buy big gas hogs. And not once did I mention my neighbors, not one of whom owns a 16 year old cargo van.

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

Why can't we use corn as a second source of energy? I would like to know.

Because the popped kernals clog the fuel pumps.

Mainly because corn isn't the right source to use, but sugar from cane and sugar beets.

Corn is merely what the politicians paid off by Archer Daniels Midland want to promote.

 

[alphieb]

Because the popped kernals clog the fuel pumps.

Mainly because corn isn't the right source to use, but sugar from cane and sugar beets.

Corn is merely what the politicians paid off by Archer Daniels Midland want to promote.

Umm.....sugar cane is very hard to grow in the US. Corn is a good alternative and I guess it is in fact being used as a source of ethanol. That shall be good for the agricultural industry and it will not produce as much waste.

 

[alphieb]

I don't know about anyone else, but I drive my V8 beasty of a full size van because it's taller than almost all the other passenger vehicles on the road. So I can see the openings in the traffic much better.

It's got a lot of lovely horse tucked inside it, and it's really huge, which makes the intimidation factor work wonders on yuppies in BMW's. Not to mention the surprise factor when this bus can just leap forward and take a lane.

And it only cost me $6,000, which is about $20,000 less than a stupid hybrid. To make up that twenty grand in savings on gas prices, I'd have to drive about 130,000 miles, which would take about ten years or so.

Besides, since I don't have a hybrid, I'm immune from smug.

See, many reasons why people should buy big gas hogs. And not once did I mention my neighbors, not one of whom owns a 16 year old cargo van.

Well it all depends on how much driving you do or how much gas will increase in the future. Do you commute a long way to work? How much does it take you to fill up your bus tank and how many times a week do you do that?

 

[oldreliable67]

while Exxon is just sitting on it's fat ***

This is hardly sitting on it's fat ***...

they emphasized that management is doing everything it can to boost supply in the marketplace (capital spending was up 41% in the quarter, to $4.8 billion). And they argued that the best thing Washington could do is to stop talking about measures such as windfall profit taxes that would discourage production, and instead open up more of Alaska and offshore areas to drilling.

But while Exxon was doing its best to mollify financial pros and consumers, the folks it is really intent on pleasing are shareholders. The company "distributed" a massive $7 billion to shareholders in the first quarter -- $2 billion in dividends and $5 billion in share buybacks. That's up 67% from 2005's first quarter.

Source.

XOM is doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing: re-investing in world-wide exploration and R&D and rewarding shareholders who risked their capital with them. If they were not doing so, the market would penalize them severely.

There is quite a good discussion on this topic on a thread in the "Economics" forum, at

http://www.debatepolitics.com/economics/10576-how-can-we-combat-gas-prices.html

That thread considers alternative fuels such as ethanol/methanol and a number of other issues.