It amazes me how passive we are about the gas prices. $3.00 a gallon is outrageous considering the gas companies were already turning profits at $.95 per gallon 6 years ago. Oil & Gas companies are giggling about record profits and stock prices while Americans and Canadians are being bled dry at the pump. Isn't it ironic that one of Dubya's 1st campaign slogan's was "Don't get Gored at tthe Pump".
Those profits at .95 a gallon were during a time when oil was a lot easier to find and a lot easier to pump and refine. Now, an increasing percentage of what we find are little tiny fields that are exhausted in a couple of years and that yield oil the consistency of peanut butter. That costs more to handle.
It's true. People everywhere will want their gas prices back to normal. These same people will moan and cry about our foreign policy in the Middle East. They can't have it both ways, though ideologies desperately try to.
For once, GySgt and I are in agreement--if we want cheap oil, from here on out we'll have to kill for it.
Personally I think the government should put a heavy punitive tax on gasoline, say an additional $2 per gallon. The oil market doesn't automatically correct for externalities such as pollution, and Muslims blowing **** up.
If we wish to avoid a Mad Maxx/ Night of the Living Dead type scenario, try $20.00 per gallon.
In light of the recent reportings of Exxon's outrageous profit reports and retirement deals (didn't someone just retire from Exxon with $356 million?), a recent report on Newsradio88 suggested that the prices will continue to go up for several months, then drop to levels that, in contrast, would appear 'cheap'-giving consumers the false sense that they're getting a 'bargain'.
The oil majors don't set the price of oil. PERIOD. The market does, and it's a very efficient market. It would be next to impossible to manipulate it.
Look, just do the math. Suppose we stripped that CEO of his $365 million retirement package. At $70.00 a barrel, we could purchase 5 million barrels of oil. That's less than 25% of the oil the United States uses
in a single day. Take the $40 billion dollars in reported profits from the majors last year. At $70 a barrel, that's enough money to buy the world a 6 day supply of oil.
The 'legitimate' reasons for the increases, ie; refinery disruptions due to the coming change to ethanol and OPEC's price-settings, sound more like excuses from a kid caught stealing cookies.
I don't know what you mean by OPEC's price setting--they have no real spare capacity to speak of. The MTBE/ ethanol bit is a distraction from the real issues, so you'll get no argument from me there.
The reason oil is becoming more expensive right now is because demand is increasing while supply is staying constant. In the past, until roughly the middle of 2004, supply grew year over year and month over month. That is no longer the case. Eventually, no matter what we do (and this will be sooner rather than later), the production of oil will enter into irreversible decline.
