Rob_Mayes
Adjunct
Reged: 12/23/07
Posts: 195
Loc: Central IL USA
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Anyone watch the grilling of the Oil Executives by congress last night on Cspan? What did you think?
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gimpy
Adjunct
Reged: 01/11/05
Posts: 247
Loc: Cedar Rapids Iowa
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from what I understand the oil companys profit about 10 cents per gallon of gas, sounds fair to me
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ladisney
Loquacious
Reged: 01/12/05
Posts: 3166
Loc: Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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I want to know who's watching the guys who sell milk and eggs! They've gone up a lot more than gas.
-------------------- "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken
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clanrickarde
Loquacious
Reged: 03/04/06
Posts: 2526
Loc: Tucson , Az
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I wanna know whose watching the peeps who sell us the crude from the middle east. 
Now.... there you will find your money grubbers.
-------------------- "Proud to be an Infidel" ... "100% pure American Jingoist"
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Bucky
Loquacious
Reged: 05/21/06
Posts: 3971
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The oil patch folk have more power than any congress in any land. I didn't see the show, but I expect it was posturing & posing by the lawmakers, as opposed to actually getting anything done, like - price controls or even a viable energy policy passed as legislation. (Ha ha ha ha)
The other oddity - how many US companies not in oil can afford to build refineries as venture capitalists, but do not? A GE, Microsoft, or any of the huge investment banks could afford a few refineries, then sell them off and make a pile of dough, but they do not. Why? The EPA regs for one. Endless Nimby lawsuits with no help from congress to prevent them for another.
A better question might be, why does congress allow fuel taxes of around 60 cents or more per gallon? 390 million gallons of gas are sold every day in the US. In a year, that's roughly $85,410,000,000.00 in fuel taxes per year.
Then there's the revenue collected on diesel fuel...
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ladisney
Loquacious
Reged: 01/12/05
Posts: 3166
Loc: Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Our energy policy is to prevent drilling here in the US that might reduce our dependence on foreign oil and drive down the price. To prevent the construction of new refineries that might reduce the price shocks caused everytime one of them shuts down. To prevent the building of nuclear power plants thus reducing oil, gas or coal use and get cheaper electricity.
-------------------- "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken
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bogie
Adjunct
Reged: 01/11/05
Posts: 484
Loc: Cumming, Ga
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Even the US (democratic) Congress can not repeal the law of supply and demand!
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Bucky
Loquacious
Reged: 05/21/06
Posts: 3971
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Quote:
Even the US (democratic) Congress can not repeal the law of supply and demand!
Sure there's some of that, but also the manipulation of pricing and the fact that less than 30 or 40 people set the barrel prices of oil for the entire world, then the commodities folk jack the prices skyward from there.
The oil folk tell us there are shortages of diesel and home heating oil. Diesel has been in production for around 100 years, and they haven't figured out how to make enough by now?
Cough - Bull----
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bogie
Adjunct
Reged: 01/11/05
Posts: 484
Loc: Cumming, Ga
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Question Who makes more "profit" from a gallon of gas; "big oil" or "big government"?
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Rob_Mayes
Adjunct
Reged: 12/23/07
Posts: 195
Loc: Central IL USA
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Quote:
from what I understand the oil companys profit about 10 cents per gallon of gas, sounds fair to me
Yes the oil companies make no more than 10 per gallon on downstream profits, but the upstream profits are massive.
An analogy: A builder builds a home, his wife is a real estate agent. She sells the house and makes 7%. Later he tells someone he made 7% on that house, what he forget to mention is that he made 30 percent profit on building the house.
The oil companies have upstream production profits and down stream profits. The upstream profits include the difference between acquiring crude oil and selling it to their refinery. The down stream profits are what is left after refining, marketing, shipping, and retail expenses. When oil companies talk of profit per gallon that is downstream profits, they fail to mention that they make a Shi_Load on the upsteam operations. 
I do not know were political bribes are expensed to.
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