That is bullshit. (I can't say what company it is because it would not be the right thing to do for our company but is is one of the largest in the world)I know for a fact domestic crude production is at an all time high.

With these taxes you speak of...
Our company is still going to make the same dollar for the oil/gas that it sells no matter if the state changes the permitting fees or increases the taxes we have to pay. We will just charge more for the base product. That price will be passed on to the refinery and then to the local station owner. Now I know you have complete faith in that local owner to eat that increased cost and save you a few cents at the pump, right?

If you want to have a serious effect on the cost at the pump, park your car. The only way to truly influence the price is to use less gas. The laws of supply and demand are in effect and while the public bitches about filling up at $3.00+ a gallon, they are still doing it by the droves. I know you like to Monday morning quarterback issues like this but you have yet to say a single thing that makes you a solution to the problem.

I fill my tank every 2.5 weeks. I avoid driving the 15 mile round trip journey to my house for lunch each day (in fact I walk to get my lunch everyday - even when it rains). I plan my routes so that my outings don't take me across town three or four times. I actively do something to conserve gas. If I could ride a bike to work I would but I don't have the spare hour and a half each day it would take.

What do you do Gene? (If you are too much of a pussy to answer the question, I understand. When you say that you do nothing other than bitch about the problem it makes you look like a fool.)

this proves my point in two or three other threads about taxes

As long as there is demand then it will continue. Look at Air America for example. No demand equals no supply. Not enough people bought products from advertisers of the hate America radio network so it did not make money so it folded. People buy gas, demand for more gas continues to go up, this means that they will have record profits. It is basic economics supply and demand. Ten cents a gallon is still ten cents a gallon if they sell more gas then they make more dimes. If you ever worked in a for profit organization you would understand this. If the price of gas was a dollar a gallon and the oil companies made ten cents a gallon they would sell more gas making more money so by your statements then the price of gas should go down if the oil companies want to make more money.



Supply and demand, volume sales and still ten cents a gallon, the more they sell the more they make.



NYU why do you ask?



Really? well let me check with my son the doctor in the family. His doctorate is in ecconomics and he agrees with me. Oh, and he is a democrat, too much like his mother. BTW where did you get your business degree?

As long as there is demand then it will continue. Demand relative to SUPPLY. That is HOW Big Oil rapes the American Public. They control the SUPPLY and thus are able to extort higher and higher prices and inflate their profits. Because there are only a few VERL large companies that ALL use the same tactics there is no competition that would normally increase supply and drive down prices!

this is the biggest question i have essentially. the lack of real competition in this industry. from where i sit, they seem to work more like the mob than a competitive industry. everyone takes their piece of turf and like tony told phil last season (sopranos reference, for some spoilers, go here... WWW Link ) "there's enough for everybody."

Sean

That is why the Federal Government MUST act to protect the American Family and American small business! Bush talks about how important small business is to our economy. The increase in gas is just about the worst thing that can happen to small business!!!

i agree Gene, tho we might disagree on the specific acts, and what might be the most effective. i do thank you for starting the discussion tho, as it is important.

we have a lot of creative minds in this country, and it pains me to see that creativity neglected in this area. the most creative thing big oil has suggested is to drill up our alaskan wildlife preserves...meanwhile, our creative minds can get ultracreative when it comes to fenagling tax cuts for oneself and trying to get the fed to turn over trillions to the wall street fat cats.

until people see energy as a national security issue, as well as an opportunity to enter a new age of innovation where great profits will be reaped (just by different people maybe than are raking it in on oil as they protect their turf), and not some kooky left wing "greenpeace" movement, i'm afraid little will be done

Sean

People in America wait until there is a major problem before we act. This is what will happen with Energy, Social Security, Medicare and the deficit. Border security will become a major issue if we are attacked again and they find the terrorists came across our unprotected border or brought weapons through our unprotected ports. WHY we can not learn to PREVENT a Fire rather then FIGHT the fire I do not understand! You are correct we do have some very intelligent people in this country!

because our system of government and way of life primarily is not revolutionary. as andrew tobias, writer of the 1st book on investing i ever read back in the 80's wrote (para) we "muddle" ...meaning we slowly trudge along, making small incremental changes as we see fit. in other words , our way is "evolutionary." and that doesn't have anything to do with darwin vs. creationism, lol.

that system serves us well most of the time, but as some of history shows, it does fall short every once in awhile when a revolutionary call is more appropriate.

but even with shortcomings included,,,its still the best country ever.

you put price caps on the oil companies they go away completely

you democrats keep screaming that we are not paying enough at the pumps and to prove your point other countries are paying up to 10 a gallon

so when the prices go up you cry fowl becouse the money isn't going into your pockets

so that you can control where it goes

the big oil companies are owned by investers who get payed to invest sure the more you have invested the more you get payed

dan, stop calling me a democrat.



when did i suggest price caps or any of the other words you are trying to hijack into my mouth?

and btw...i am one of those investors. i am aware of how the game is played. lol

Actually as I have told you before the price of oil is set by speculators in the stock market not the oil companies. The speculators set the price that the oil companies have to pay for crude oil. If the environMENTAList had not stopped American oil companies from drilling in the US and stopped the oil refineries from being built and stopped the nuclear power plants from being built 30 years ago we would have cheap oil today. But the idiots that want to save the planet have not saved the planet and their silly ideas about global cooling, global warming, and global climate change have done nothing but make everything we eat drink or do more expensive with no positive results, only more predictions of doom and gloom.

Sean, environmental regulations prohibit new oil companies. To start a new oil company in the US you have to have access to oil, a refinery, and a distribution network.
With china buying all the oil they can afford they have driven the world price up, so buying it on the open market will doom the business before it starts. The company would then have to buy land with oil under it and drill, but that is hard to do in this country now days. So you can’t have competition because there is no access to oil.
If by some stroke of luck the new company found oil it could get out of the ground cheaper than buying it on the open market. It would need to refine that oil, without a refinery of its own it would have to pay for it to be refined like Iran does. What serious business person is going to refine oil for its competition without making up possible losses by jacking up the refinery costs to the new business? If the new company passed that hurtle then they would need to sell it to someone. Shell Oil Company is not going to buy it unless they have to. There are not enough independents left in the US to make it profitable.
When my family owned a gas station it was an independent and we had few choices as to where we could buy gas from. The oil companies set the price so we could never do much damage to their company owned stations; sure we could sell cheaper by a few cents but not by much. On top of that we were prohibited by law that says we could not make more than three cents per gallon sold and we could not sell at a loss. This means we could not gouge the customer and we could not drop the price too far.
If you want to know the price of gas just look at an independent dealer his price is set so he can’t make more than three cents per gallon subtract that amount and you have the price of gas. Subtract 87 cents and you have the price of gas less federal taxes. Subtract ten cents and you have the oil companies cut. One dollar a gallon feeds the whole system the cost of refining the fuel is about eight cents a gallon and the rest is local taxes.
There is no profit to be made starting a new oil company today. So there won’t be any competition in the oil business but there is competition in the battery business which is starting to replace gas as the fuel for cars. It would have come sooner but the nuclear power plants needed to make it profitable are not on line yet. Maybe in 50 years or so.

maybe we don't need more new oil companies. maybe we need to do something to spur competition like what we did when we broke up at&t...which is probably more responsible for the PC boon than anything...even al gore, lol. maybe there 's a way we can break up some of these thinly disguised monopolies and that might actually get some competition going.

cause right now, the only competition going on are how many hot dogs you can get for 99 cents...or maybe a hotdog and soda (that's "pop" if one is in pittsburgh)

as far as the gas they are sellin,,,i don't see any real competition. that fix was in a long time before it ever hit their pumps.

you didn't the col has

don't know about any other state but the state of utah has a law that states the gas station owner has to make a 25% profit on the gas he/she/they sell

i calls em as i see them