Another take on gas prices

[VanC]

"Oil companies make about 13 cents on a gallon of gas. Government makes much more. The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. Mrs. Clinton's New York collects 42.4 cents a gallon. Forty-nine states--all but Alaska--make more than the oil companies on every gallon."

Interesting. Not singling out Sen. Clinton here, but the next time I hear a politician angrily thump his/her chest about "obscene oil company profits", I think I'm gonna scream! Talk about hypocrisy. :roll:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/Geor ... gas_prices

 

[Frankie]

"Oil companies make about 13 cents on a gallon of gas. Government makes much more. The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. Mrs. Clinton's New York collects 42.4 cents a gallon. Forty-nine states--all but Alaska--make more than the oil companies on every gallon."

Interesting. Not singling out Sen. Clinton here, but the next time I hear a politician angrily thump his/her chest about "obscene oil company profits", I think I'm gonna scream! Talk about hypocrisy. :roll:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/Geor ... gas_prices

You might ask George Will what the oil companies made on a gallon of gas three years ago. He can spin all he wants, but oil company profits have been through the roof for the last three years. And compensation for retiring oil company executives have been also.

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I'm going to edit this to add this link: http://www.ftc.gov/bc/gasconf/comments/gilbert.htm

It's an old article, 2001, but it shows the refiner's margin on a gallon of gas went from .39 to .66 in the first five months of 2001 in CA. It's been going up ever since. It's price gouging pure and simple.

 

[Horse Guy]

Dont you just love these companies that pay their management multi millions of dollars in salaries that they put on the books as expenses and then they turn around and cry no profits.

 

[MikeC]

Oil company profits have been high because demand has not diminished.

We could put a stop to the insanity by seriously curtailing gas usage.

As long as we continue to buy at high prices, the oil companies will oblige us.

Are the Angus bull sellers gouging the commercial cattle man because he will pay those higher prices?

 

[USMCRanchGirl]

What, you don't pay yourself millions of dollars so you can show you had a loss on the business last year and then write the pass through of the loss off on your personal taxes to offset the salary you received? Hmmm .... we may be on to something here. 8)

 

[Horse Guy]

Oil company profits have been high because demand has not diminished.

We could put a stop to the insanity by seriously curtailing gas usage.

As long as we continue to buy at high prices, the oil companies will oblige us.

Are the Angus bull sellers gouging the commercial cattle man because he will pay those higher prices?

Yeah a small car is really going to do me a lot of good. Maybe I could use public transit. Oh yeah there is none within a hundred miles of here.
PS Now the enviromental wackos are claiming methanol is worse than oil because it destroys the ozone.

 

[Horse Guy]

What, you don't pay yourself millions of dollars so you can show you had a loss on the business last year and then write the pass through of the loss off on your personal taxes to offset the salary you received? Hmmm .... we may be on to something here. 8)

What we should all do is get rid of our trucks and buy personal jets. Then we could fly from one place to the next and tell the poor people <working class>how they are destroying the earth and that everything thats wrong in the world is their fault.
Besides tax write offs maybe we could get government funding to do this?

 

[USMCRanchGirl]

Besides tax write offs maybe we could get government funding to do this?

Why not? They provide funding for the craziest ideas already; it's all in the way you word it! You just have to come up with a good program title and away you go. Something like Personal Transportation Environmental Initiative. Wait, I think they already gave funding for that ...

 

[VanC]

"Oil companies make about 13 cents on a gallon of gas. Government makes much more. The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. Mrs. Clinton's New York collects 42.4 cents a gallon. Forty-nine states--all but Alaska--make more than the oil companies on every gallon."

Interesting. Not singling out Sen. Clinton here, but the next time I hear a politician angrily thump his/her chest about "obscene oil company profits", I think I'm gonna scream! Talk about hypocrisy. :roll:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/Geor ... gas_prices

You might ask George Will what the oil companies made on a gallon of gas three years ago. He can spin all he wants, but oil company profits have been through the roof for the last three years. And compensation for retiring oil company executives have been also.

-------
I'm going to edit this to add this link: http://www.ftc.gov/bc/gasconf/comments/gilbert.htm

It's an old article, 2001, but it shows the refiner's margin on a gallon of gas went from .39 to .66 in the first five months of 2001 in CA. It's been going up ever since. It's price gouging pure and simple.

Did you read the article you cited, or couldn't you get past the refinery margin? California is hardly representative of the rest of the nation. From your article:

With respect to gasoline, the California market is an island.

Over the period January 2000 to May 2001, the average refinery margin for gasoline sold in the Gulf Coast averaged 16.6 cents per gallon less than the refinery margin for gasoline sold in California.

Whether oil companies are making profits that are excessive, or merely above depressed levels of the past, can be debated ad infinitum.

Another quote from the George Will column:

In the 20 years from 1987 to 2006, Exxon Mobil invested more ($279 billion) than it earned ($266 billion). Five weeks after the company announced its 2006 earnings, it said it will invest $60 billion in oil and gas projects over the next three years.

The point of my post was not whether oil companies are making a profit. They are. The point was that so are the very politicians that whine about those profits. That's the height of hypocrisy, IMO. Anyone but me wonder what those politicians are doing with the "obscene profits" THEY are reaping?

 

[Horse Guy]

Alberta has next to nothing for gasoline taxes but yet consumers almost pay as much as the rest of the country which has much higher taxes on fuel.
In other words if you lower the tax the oil companies just jack up the price at the pump because everybody has to buy fuel. We have no choice. The oil companies know this so they keep it right to the point where we can just barely afford it.
If this isnt the way it works then why does gasoline cost almost as much in Alberta as it does in the rest of Canada?
Plus the gas comes from Alberta and is refined in Alberta. Alberta has the worlds second biggest oil reserves.
Also these companies like Haliburton are only paying the Alberta government a few cents in royalties on every $70 barrel of oil! No friggen wonder Haliburton makes more money than the whole GDP of Canada.
Poor oil companies,my heart bleeds for them. Haha Maybe we could take up a collection for them? Oh yeah the Alberta government already is with billions of dollars of "incentives" in the form of tax payer dollars.

 

[Txwalt]

Haliburton and Big oil companies are publicly traded companies. If you want in on the so called big profits buy yourself some stock.

Walt

 

[Caustic Burno]

Haliburton and Big oil companies are publicly traded companies. If you want in on the so called big profits buy yourself some stock.

Walt

Amen as I own Exxon, Chevron, Conoco stock keep those dollars rolling in boys.
If you want to get mad watch the school bus come by the house half empty. You tax dollars bought the fuel for that bus pull up to the school and every little Johnny has a new truck parked in the parking lot and Ma and Pa are buying the gas.
Totally amazing when I was growing up families had an automobile. Then it went to two, now every member of the family that has a drivers liscense has one.
We are an instant gratifacation society and we want to play and not pay if we can't we are mad.

 

[Wewild]

Totally amazing when I was growing up families had an automobile. Then it went to two, now every member of the family that has a drivers liscense has one.
We are an instant gratifacation society and we want to play and not pay if we can't we are mad.

Good post.

 

[Herefordcross]

Politics Again?? :roll:

 

[Horse Guy]

Haliburton and Big oil companies are publicly traded companies. If you want in on the so called big profits buy yourself some stock.

Walt

Yeah that would work if we were not just getting by every month and actually had some bucks to invest. Haha I guess we better cut back on our lavish lifestyle. haha Man if you only knew.

 

[aplusmnt]

The point of my post was not whether oil companies are making a profit. They are. The point was that so are the very politicians that whine about those profits. That's the height of hypocrisy, IMO. Anyone but me wonder what those politicians are doing with the "obscene profits" THEY are reaping?

They like to single out Oil companies profits because it is easy to politicise gas. People will get fighting mad over gas prices but give little thought to the High priced bottles of water or other products they buy at Wal-Mart that has a larger margin of profit than the oil companies.

When looking at Oil companies margins they are not near as profitable as many other retailers. Just them Gross numbers sound good for politicians to quote.