We’ve all heard the excuses on TV. Oil company executives sitting in front of congress, answering questions about why gas prices are so high, and explaining away their record profits.
“Well we’re really only making pennies on the dollar. The profits aren’t really that high.” “We don’t have any control over gasoline prices. The prices are all set by market forces”
“We need more refining capacity and we need to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”
I find it totally amazing that anyone at all would believe the current gasoline prices are not 100% wholly contrived by the oil companies.
The facts are that 2006 and 2007 were the very best years ever for Exxon Mobile: in 2007, Exxon surpassed the 2006 windfall of $39.5 Billion with a record smashing profit of $40.6 Billion.
The number two US oil company, Chevron’s 2007 earnings were up 9% over 2006, with record profits of $18.7 Billion. Put that in with similar profits from Shell and ConocoPhillips, and you have over $100 Billion in profits from the oil industry in the United States in just one year. Click here for the news story from US News and World Reports.
Of course, that $100 Billion in profits really isn’t such a big deal – pennies on the dollar.
What a load of tripe! These guys must use the same accountants as the movie studios – like where you can have a blockbuster movie that does $100 million in the first weekend, but by creative bookkeeping, it doesn’t show a profit. Complete and utter bullshit.
Nope. What we really have here is a Texas oilman for president, and he’s simply paying his buddies back.
The oil companies are jacking up the prices, deliberately, simply because they can – and no one can do a god damned thing about it. They’ve got protection.
Beyond that, it also really looks like they may be using the phony crisis to pressure congress into authorizing drilling in (and the eventual raping of) the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. They’re hoping they can scare America into letting them drill. I’m sure Bush would let those leases go for cheap, to his good buddies…
Yes, and Bush has been doing his part, right along, to run those prices up.
Up until about two weeks ago, Bush was filling up the national Strategic Petroleum Reserves – which had the effect (by increasing worldwide demand) of running up prices.
Who in their right mind would buy oil for the national reserves when oil is at record prices? George W. Bush.
No, it’s clear this gasoline crisis is just the same as the earlier electricity crisis. Remember the brown-outs and all? Click here for a story on the Enron energy traders by CBS News.
In that instance, you’ll recall that the Enron energy traders got caught running up electricity prices in California. They had deliberately shut down generation facilities and used other contrivances and phony excuses just to run up prices.
Where the Enron traders went wrong was that they stupidly allowed their conversations to be recorded. I’m guessing the oil company executives are smarter than that.
But no less culpable.
A revolution in Nigeria threatens the oilfields; gas prices go up. A refinery in Louisiana gets shut down; prices go up. Oil speculators buy more futures; oil prices go up.
Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit.
The events they cite may indeed happen. But they have no appreciable effect on prices. Why do gas prices keep going up? Because Exxon and the others really like those record profits, and they want more. Much, much more.
As if that isn’t bad enough, the really sad thing is that thanks to George W. Bush and his oil company buddies, our whole economy is being raped and pillaged even as we speak.
Our whole economy runs on oil. If you jack up the price of oil by almost a third in a little over one year, it affects everything.
Where do the $100 Billion in oil company profits come from? Everywhere.
The ship that brings the cheap, lead covered Chinese toys to the US runs on oil. Bunker fuel accounts for over 50% of the cost of running a ship. Shipping lines are now talking about fuel surcharges to offset the increased costs.
The truck that takes the cheap Chinese Toys to the local Wal-Mart store runs on diesel – and those truck drivers are paying as much as $5 a gallon for diesel now, where a year ago prices were more in the $3 range.
Very nearly everything that goes to market that’s sold in any and every kind of store got there courtesy of gas or oil. And for that matter, many of the products themselves are actually made from oil (many plastics are made from petroleum products).
Is Wal-Mart or the huge shipping company or whoever going to eat the increased energy costs? Hell no. They’ll pass it on to the consumers.
And that is going to royally screw our economy. If you think the mess is bad now, just wait for a while more till all the effects have percolated around.
Thanks, George Bush! You’ve building quite a legacy here.
Like I said, bend over America…
