Gas Companies Killing America

2005 Z71 · March 15, 2006

Just a thread to hear the rants about the gas prices. They use every excuse possible as to why prices go up... as their profits continue to skyrocket. I am a hardcore conservative... but I am starting to wonder about these prices. Once again congress brought them in for fake hearings.

mmmikkke · March 15, 2006

Yeah, I'm sick and tired of people presuming that the only way to see this is the oil companies raping us average americans. In my opinion, we brought high oil prices on ourselves by not conserving, not exploring for oil, and continuing to write international trade checks, living 6% beyond our means as a nation. Our current accounts deficit is 6% of our GDP! What kind of place to live will this be when we have to start paying this back!!

So when Dubai wants to buy some of our port TERMINALS, and we have a fit, it's because we are living with our heads in the sand.

We're giving them all these dollars, for oil, and what are they supposed to do with them? Stuff them in their mattresses?

I'm ashamed of what we did to Dubai's offer.

PaulieK · March 15, 2006

Yeah, I'm sick and tired of people presuming that the only way to see this is the oil companies raping us average americans. In my opinion, we brought high oil prices on ourselves by not conserving, not exploring for oil, and continuing to write international trade checks, living 6% beyond our means as a nation. Our current accounts deficit is 6% of our GDP! What kind of place to live will this be when we have to start paying this back!!

So when Dubai wants to buy some of our port TERMINALS, and we have a fit, it's because we are living with our heads in the sand.

We're giving them all these dollars, for oil, and what are they supposed to do with them? Stuff them in their mattresses?

I'm ashamed of what we did to Dubai's offer.

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How about we regulate the oil companies like the phone companies or the electric companies? How about we put a price cap on oil? This "whatever the market will bare" bulls**t has got to stop. Why should I have to get a second job just to cover the gas cost of going to my first job?

You're ashamed what we did with the Dubai offer?!?!?!?! Listen one thing you need to remember is not all Muslim's are Terrorists but 99.9 percent of the Terrorist ARE Muslim. I can think of 3000 differences between a British company running the ports compared to an Arab company. The 1st one would be the British did'nt fly airplanes into buildings killing 3000 people! Is this view racist? You bet! Is it racial profiling? You bet! You think climbing in bed with people who have a religous obligation to kill the infidel is appropiate? WOW! I would rather have my head in the sand than have it chopped off and shown on camera by the same people you think should run our ports. I for one am ashamed of YOU sir!

Elwood 2000 · March 15, 2006

I have said it before, cheap gasoline and big box stores have hurt this country. If gas was not so cheap, we would have shopped in town instead of driving 25-50 miles to go to Walmart, Home Depo or Lowes for supplies and a meal while we were there. Our small towns would be thriving, as business owners would be making money, hiring employees and providing a good lifestlye for himself and his fellow townspeople. Small business is the BACKBONE of this country and we, as a nation, have allowed big box stores to knocked there legs out from under them.

Should we regulate oil prices? No. It IS supply and demand. Don't like the price of gas? No one is making you drive a rig that gets 15 mpg. Buy one that gets 30 mpg and cut your fuel cost in half. Companies should not be regulated because of a choice that YOU the consumer makes. Sure the Arab countries are screwing us on the price, but if we sell it to American citizens cheaper than we pay for it, who eats the difference? The oil companies? They will go broke quickly. The Government? They are already broke and it is not their job to "take care of us">

The only problem with Big Oil in this country is this. They have so much money, they put a ton of politicians in their pockets. The infuence all other publicly traded alternatives on the free market (E-85 comes to mind). They are not the only ones either. All big business does whatever is necessary to MAKE A PROFIT, not take care of citizens of this country.

Ah, the citizens of this country. We, as a people, have become people who like to buy and not pay. Until recently, bankruptcy laws were very easy for people to "work". It was a tool for citizens to buy what they wanted and walk away from their debts with virtually no responsibility for their actions. The laws have changed, but the people didn't. We have people who live WAY outside their means. Just yesterday, I was at Old Navy and a young girl in front of me in line was trying her FOURTH credit card to get one to work to buy the items she wanted. She just could not figure out why they wouldn't work and one, she thought wouldn't work, but tried anyway!!! Pay your bill lady!!! If you pay the credit cards what you owe, in a timely fashion, they let you continue to use them!!!

The politicians have allowed huge trade deficits to mount and made it very easy for companies to send labor outside of this country for the soul purpose of profit. Sure, Mexicans, Koreans, Chinese and people from several other companies will work a week for what many Americans get for a day in terms of wages, so they follow the money.

In the end, there is no one to blame, but the people of this country, from the person living paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet to the White House and everyone in between. Not just today, but for the past 30 years.

Just my thoughts.

Mark_in_Tulsa · March 15, 2006

I was at Old Navy
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Wait!!!! Why were you at Old Navy?

JK

From what I have heard, that the Big Oil will continue these high prices, untill the tree huggers let them drill in the Artic area, and off of our own coast line. Now I know thats a whole different can of worms, and I havn't heard enough from both sides to make a decision on that.

squeakysounds · March 15, 2006

The oil prices are adjusted by Supply and Demand, not the oil companies screwing us over. If you think gas prices are high, its because of the laws that prohibit any new oil development to take place. Oil companies go to other countries to get oil because its too much of a hassle to do anything in the US. Anytime they try to build a new refinery or oil rig in the US, activists and politicians get in the way because it will be polluting the earth. The government puts caps on the gas and oil prices back in the 70's, remember what happened in the 70's? Lack of oil and high oil prices. Partly due to the problems in the middle east at the time, but mostly because of the caps that were put in place.

In California, there has not been anything new in terms of oil built for many years. There are quite a few oil platforms and rigs off the coast of california and their leases are coming up for renewals, activists are trying to intervene with that because the oilrigs are not "tourist friendly" off the coast of California. So not only are they not allowing anything new to be buit, they are trying to get rid of whats already here.

With higher gas prices, the oil companies are making a good profit but they are taking all the money and putting it back into development for more oil. When prices are low, the oil companies not only have no reason to develop new oil fields but they dont have the funds to do so. People dont realize the price it costs to build the infastructure and all of the structures required for oil drilling and refining.

What gets me with Dianne Feinstein sitting in front of the oil companies asking them "Why are oil prices so dang high?" Well she is one of the leading reasons why California has not developed anything new for oil. Anytime something comes up for it, she complains about how it is bad for the environment. Oh well, we elected them and continue to elect them.

Stop looking at the oil companies and look at the politicians and the people who elect them. The prices will go back down, its how it works. It might take a while but prices will go down.

gave20 · March 15, 2006

Yeah, I'm sick and tired of people presuming that the only way to see this is the oil companies raping us average americans. In my opinion, we brought high oil prices on ourselves by not conserving, not exploring for oil, and continuing to write international trade checks, living 6% beyond our means as a nation. Our current accounts deficit is 6% of our GDP! What kind of place to live will this be when we have to start paying this back!!

So when Dubai wants to buy some of our port TERMINALS, and we have a fit, it's because we are living with our heads in the sand.

We're giving them all these dollars, for oil, and what are they supposed to do with them? Stuff them in their mattresses?

I'm ashamed of what we did to Dubai's offer.

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I agree with you 100%. That was a real slap in the face to a true ally; are we trying to win the war or not. On another note, oil prices are supply and demand if people would stop paying high prices then prices would go down. If you have a problem with capitalism then Cuba and China are looking for more citizens.

plainvanilla · March 15, 2006

There have been some very insightful, intelligent replies here.

Elwood, you have a very good grasp on the economic problems besieging America.

The Arab nations play us like a fiddle. They over-produce on purpose like they did back in 98-99 and gas went down to 83 cents a gallon. Crude was trading down below $10 per barrel.

Back then it cost us here in Texas about $12 to get a barrel of crude out of the ground that is what we call "lifting cost".

When that happened oil drilling rigs were sold off, people were laid off and everybody else who did not care went to the lake with the boat and jet skis.

Our environmental regulations require that a well not producing must be filled and capped. So when wells were shut down due to low profits, they had to be closed off. When that happens you can't get that hole back, you must start all over and drill again.

Over the next several months the rig count went way down and domestically we were not producing hardly anything.

It took about 3 years for us to cap all of the wells and then what...... the Arab nations begin cutting back or not stepping up to meet demand. China, India are all growing and using up a great deal more of crude, but we Americans are not producing enough to make a difference and it takes us 3 to 5 years with all of the environmental BS to get production back up. In the mean time, they stick it to us and we have no choice.

This is a vicious cycle.

Oil rigs are in desperate need here now and companies are paying 3 times what they normally cost just to get in the game again.

Once we get domestic production back up, watch what OPEC does.

We need more domestic production and more refining capacity. There are people willing to invest and build this but our government makes it too hard and the juice isn't worth the squeeze. If you wanted to build a new refinery today, you would first have to do a 5-year environmental impact study just to get approval to begin building.

Elwood 2000 · March 16, 2006

The Arab nations play us like a fiddle.

You are correct. If I were to wager a crisp, new $100 bill, I would wager that the Arab countries have MORE Amercian dollars than we do!

March 16, 2006

That was a real slap in the face to a true ally; are we trying to win the war or not.

You guys seem to forget that the Saudis are no friends of ours. The men who flew our planes into our buildings killing our people were funded with Saudi money. Most, if not all of the mosques that teach the most extreme form of the Muslim religion(Wahhabism) are funded with Saudi money. We see the Saudi's not doing much to quell the river of money going to these extremists nor do we see them doing much to denounce terrorism in the name of Muslim. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them. Why do you think we're trying to reduce our dependence on foreign oil? Sure it's because of the instability in the Middle East and Venezuela with that other nut Hugo Chavez but it's also because we're(at least I am) tired of paying these people to terrorize us.

I'll bet you guys are also buying into the notion that Iran is building a nuclear program so that it can provide energy to it's people!

squeakysounds · March 16, 2006

I'll bet you guys are also buying into the notion that Iran is building a nuclear program so that it can provide energy to it's people!

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Ha, yea.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran president) - "I want Israel wiped off the face of the earth"

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - "We are researching nuclear power for energy purposes only"

Iran has more oil in their country than they could ever use and they want to research nuclear power for energy? Right.......

valleybacker · March 20, 2006

Should we regulate oil prices? No. It IS supply and demand.
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Gas and oil prices are not following the principles of supply and demand. Example? Let's us BP as an example.

BP buys their gas at 2.05, sell it at lets say 2.15.

Crude oil prices rise the next day. What does BP do? They raise their gas prices? But why? They shouldn't have to raise their prices, until they are actually affected by the crude oil rise. It takes about 2 months to refine crude oil, thus the price should not rise until after that gas reaches the market.

Point is, Gas companies raise prices in a snap of their fingers (regardless of what they paid for it) and they take months to bring it back down. This is instant profit and we just allow it to happen.

March 20, 2006

Should we regulate oil prices? No. It IS supply and demand.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Gas and oil prices are not following the principles of supply and demand. Example? Let's us BP as an example.

BP buys their gas at 2.05, sell it at lets say 2.15.

Crude oil prices rise the next day. What does BP do? They raise their gas prices? But why? They shouldn't have to raise their prices, until they are actually affected by the crude oil rise. It takes about 2 months to refine crude oil, thus the price should not rise until after that gas reaches the market.

Point is, Gas companies raise prices in a snap of their fingers (regardless of what they paid for it) and they take months to bring it back down. This is instant profit and we just allow it to happen.

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It's worse than that. When Hurricane Katrina was still in the Gulf, the price of gas went up solely on the speculation that the hurricane would shut down production. On SPECULATION! All anyone has to do is cause a panic on some stupid bit of information and the gas prices will go up.

PaulieK · March 20, 2006

Thats why I said regulate them. Listen, it has not hurt the electric companies or the phone companies so I do not think it will hurt the OIL COMPANIES. It will still entitle them to make a profit just not an obsene amount of profit.

GTUSN2006 · March 20, 2006

First of all, 99.9% of terrorists aren't Muslim and that is an ignorant and westernized comment. Irish Republican Army? How about South America? Have you ever heard of all the groups that kidnap people for money there? Africa? Bosnia? The Phillipines? I guess you could say 99.9% of terrorists who attack America are muslim? Oklahoma City, oh crap, there goes that arguement even. Terrorism is a global threat and the United States Military and other government organizations have been dealing with it for a long time, and from alot of other groups than muslims. So don't think that this new War on Terror is a new thing at all, it is just more publicized. But if you want to stick your head in the sand and believe what Fox news tells you instead of educating yourself, then go ahead, you are entitled to your opinion, which is what makes this country great.

Secondly, Dubai=UAE not Saudi Arabia, yeah they are neighbors, but are you Mexican or Canadian? Countries like the UAE and Qatar are highly westernized as most of their economy comes from Europe and the United States. If you go to those countries you will see suprisngly fewer muslims than you would expect, and alot more faces that look like yours and mine.

About government regulation...be careful what you ask for. Yeah, it will lower gas prices for now. But there can be bad consequences. Look at California and government caps on prices for electricity leading to blackouts in the late 90's. And it wont work quit like phone companies, one of the main reasons for that is infrastructure. Do you want 30 sets of phone lines on your street? Allowing local monopolies but then regulating their prices is still profitable for the company bc of the monopoly, and it reduces the infrastructure that we see. Since there is not one gas company, I don't think government regulation will work as well. Cut out competition, and companies won't have the incentive to invest money on quality control, r&d and increasing their refinning capacity.

We must remember that our vehicles are a priveledge and not a right. We can own what we want to suit our lifestyle choices, but that means you may have to pay more. Ultimately, we enjoy lower gas prices than much of the world and we are also one of the richest countries (per capita). So I think its interesting we are always complaining. Yeah, it sucks when I pull up to the gas pump, but I can pay for the luxury of my truck, or sell it. Thats up to me.