upi.com — The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and punish gasoline price gouging. "Today, every member has a choice. Side with big oil or side with the consumers who are being ripped off at the gas pump."
May 23, 2007 View in Crawl 4
spacemonkeyzeroMay 24, 2007
Jimminy Carter. Who by his own accounts, must think that he's the 2nd worst President ever.
braingooMay 24, 2007
I demand a car that runs on dreams and good intentions. and looks really badass doing it. Someone get on that.
rdolishnyMay 24, 2007
> If you thrown in the oil sands of canada or the shale in colorado obtained cheaply, then the peak oil issues disappear.You're kidding right?Cheap?Disappear? Maybe in our lifetime, but likely not.Get used to it people. The oil is running out, and faster than anyone cares to think. We are in the denial stage here, but there is a long emergency ahead. The oil companies are simply making as much profit as possible for when the time comes Real Soon when they will have to shut their doors and retire. It's that simple. Start thinking about your Plan B.I've wanted to say this on the web for some time for posterity, but I figure in less than five years there will be incredible resentment towards the few with incredibly high disposable income that are left driving private automobiles. As someone who lived through the blackout a few years ago (as did many others) we saw society just start to break down into anarchy in less than 3 days. A world without oil is nothing like the world we enjoy today.
xevecMay 25, 2007
"What the "fuzzy headed leftist" Republican governor is accusing the oil companies of doing is artificially inflating prices. The legislation you commented on without using a single brain cell is pushing for more regulation. Lets look at an example of less regulation of energy (wikipedia):"Because of Enron?s new, unregulated power auction, the company?s 'Wholesale Services' revenues quadrupled ? from $12 billion in the first quarter of 2000 to $48.4 billion in the first quarter of 2001."You seem to support this: "i have no problem with the oil companies raking in whatever profit they can make."more from wikipedia:"Prior to the passage of the deregulation law, there had been only one Stage 3 rolling blackout. Following the passage, California experienced a total of 38 blackouts defined as Stage 3 rolling blackouts until federal regulators intervened in June 2001. These blackouts occurred largely as a result of the manipulation by traders and marketers. By withholding energy and shutting down generators, frenzy appeared in the market and energy prices climbed higher on the west coast.""This comes from the first comment on this post. I would like to address it because it is total bulls**t. It wasn't f**kin "de-regulation." It was called "re-regulation." Regulations still existed with california. They never "de-regulated." Read up on the regulations during that time. California just changed the regulations. How is that "de-regulating?" I thought de-regulating meant "getting rid of regulations." They didn't do that. There is also the fact the energy market is controlled by the government(like oil..and many other things). It's a monopoly created by the government...so it doesn't surprise me the service is s**tty."Wow, maybe tomorrow they will pass an anti-murder law. And if were luck, anti-rape laws. This is RIDICULOUS! IT DOES NOTHING! THIS IS JUST POLITICIANS PRETENDING TO WORK! STATES ALREADY HAVE ANTI-PRICE GOUGING LAWS! And look at the market: Nigeria, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, etc-any internal conflict in these areas? Why don't we focus on important issues like the Senate amnesty bill."This quote here gives a slippery slope fallacy..which pisses me off. Tax...you are totally wrong about "anti-gouging laws." Certain states do...yes. But not all states. Besides, these laws suck enough as it is."The US does not tax gasoline as heavily."I don't know what you mean by "heavily." I do know that the federal government makes a much bigger profit off of gasoline than the feds do. Gasoline companies make average 13 cents a gallon on gasoline. You might think "that's impossible, what about their huge profits?" Um....the thing is, these guys sell BILLIONS OF GALLONS OF GAS! How many barrels a day does the US use? I wish someone would give me the exact figure...but I know it's a lot. I don't know how many gallons it is per barrel....but I did some calculations. Let us say for argument sake...that a company sells 200 million barrels a day. Now, let us say 1 barrel = 1 gallon. So take that as profit...and you get over 200 million dollars(assuming there is no cost). That's huge! Over a year....I can see an oil company making millions in profit.
nogamiMay 25, 2007
My solution has always been to not regulate the price, but regulate how often they can change the price. ie: only allow gas stations to update their prices bi-weekly, or once a month (or whatever).That format still allows producers to set fair market prices, but prevents sudden spikes at "peak demand" times. If they find there IS a peak demand, they just need to raise prices at the next cycle (ie: the 1st of next month) to compensate (however the change will likely grab consumers' attention rather quickly and leave them demanding some explanations).This also would allow people to budget properly for gas, knowing the pricing would only change on a fixed schedule.
rnknowlesMay 30, 2007
Does anyone posted here actually work for or with an "oil company"? It seems to me that alot of people tend to believe that one would only have to stick a straw in the ground,hose it to your car and fill up. The "oil companies", as they are termed throughout this page, are just a little more diversified than just making gas. Exxon is the largest such refiner with upwards of 40 billion a year in profits. They are also the largest spender, This spending doesn't go just to buy the CEO a nice little cottage, it is used for exploration (the riskiest expenidture, it cost more than a few bucks to go around punching hole in the ground or ocean floor. Holes that may or may not produce), research and development (we all like our polyester liesure suits and pleather sofas, our nonstick cookwear,rubber sole sneakers,nicely paved roads, etc...) employee costs (payroll, pensions, healthcare etc.) just to name a few.
tehpwnerofn00bsJun 2, 2007
No, I'm talking about profit, not income. Eg: income - expenses = Profit. And who else can we turn to to lower the cost of gas. Congress doesn't have enough money to subsidize it and the Saudis will always charge as much as they bloody well please.Besides, it would be better if they used that massive profit to accomplish something other than stuffing their pockets.
tubatechnoJun 12, 2007
You're talking about MY spin when you're saying "then tell everyone else that they are ignorant if they don't agree with you"?! I'm not saying your ignorant just because of the simple fact you don't agree with me, I'm saying because from your post (i don't know you as a person), it seems like you're ignorant of the subject of business finance.
maximumpigJun 22, 2007
be careful with those good intentions, i've heard some road somewhere is paved with them.