CNN headline story this AM

[kozowski]

There are too many that will continue to do as they have in the past, not wanting to give up anything.

And how is that the government's fault?



The oil companies are making record profits because we're paying them!



If you want to put the pinch on them, stop buying their products.



Sheesh, I just can't understand why some people want the gov't to take care of them from cradle to grave... .

 

[DHayden]

Come on folks we do not want to start putting taxes on people because they have a good product, know how to market it and the demand goes up.

Are you seriously relating this to oil companies? Last time I looked I haven't seen oil have to advertise to get our business. It is a necessity for our lives not a good product of quality or great marketing strategy



I agree with the capitalism concept except that 2 factor's are effecting this topic.



1. capitalism is based on competition, OPEC is much more a monopoly and actually sets prices, not free competition between companies.



2. Oil has become much more a means of existence like water than being strictly a commodity. While the world is reeling from natural disasters is not the "ethical" time to exploit people because they have NO CHOICE.



I don't know about you but my retirement funds in oil are not increasing at even close to the rate as the profits of the oil companies are. Even if they were I would gladly give them up then to drive a lot of the country into poverty. Then again that's ethics for you, silly me profits above all right?

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

As much as I don't like paying the prices I'm paying for oil the last thing I want to see is government putting in place price controls. I'm sorry DHayden but oil is not a necessity - people DO have a choice. It is possible to survive and not use one drop of oil. Inconvenient yes, but not impossible. You could choose to live closer to your work and ride a bicycle to work (I know many that do even here in Michigan and through the winter). You could heat your house with wood that you chopped with an axe and saw, etc, etc.

 

[FloridaEd]

Let's see, now. I bought a lot a few years ago when there were, literally thousands of lots in this area for sale. I bought it cheap and held onto it for the last 10-15 years. Now, a lot of those crazy Yankees are retiring and all of a sudden that one lot is worth about 30 times what I paid for it. WINDWALL PROFITS!!!! There oughta' be a law!



So I should be taxed more because I invested and held on? It's not my fault the price has skyrocketed. It's the fault of idiots who want it so badly and are willing to pay such crazy prices. Just like folks want a LOT of gasoline and diesel fuel.



The supply/demand law is in full force!! If you don't like the price, don't pay it. Ride a bicylce, buy a Honda 50cc scooter, carpool, take the bus, and quit complaining. Learn to do with less or do without. It's up to all of us to adjust to the reality that all these markets are global and we will have to live with them.



With Katrina and Rita, I think we've learned that anyone who relies on the guv'mint to take care of them will suffer. And the guv'mint will only screw things up in the global petro market. At least, we can still get fuel if we want to pay the price. In the '73 Arab oil embargo, we couldn't get gas at any price because that wonderful guv'mint got involved and the supply just dried up with price controls.



The global oil companies will divert products and resources to maximize their profits... . and they will sell their products overseas and keep the money overseas away from the U. S. taxman if Congress enacts such legislation. Of course, we'd then have diesel fuel at $1. 13 a gallon..... and all of us could buy 14 gallons a month with our ration stamps.



Re-read the preamble to the U. S. constitution. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is all that's promised. The rest is up to us... . all of us.



If the price of fuel get too high, I'll walk or ride my bicylcle and let Exxon/Mobil execs eat the dang oil. And hope they choke on it, too.



Florida Ed

 

[DHayden]

I'm sorry DHayden but oil is not a necessity - people DO have a choice. It is possible to survive and not use one drop of oil.

Sorry I disagree, You show me how everyone who works in LA, NY or Chicago could all walk or bike to work. There isn't that much housing and you wouldn't build anymore if people weren't driving a truck to deliver it. Then show me how you do anymore shopping when there aren't any trucks delivering everything in your life that you use. People have other responsibilities to pay for things that changing jobs or finding that many jobs in a small area is quite inconceivable. Getting that knew sofa delivered on a bicycle? Easy statement to make Steve but not rational AT ALL.



Sure we don't NEED it, if every town went back to self efficiency and no one traveled across country or across state anymore. It's an easy thing to say that we don't NEED it, but it's not very logical. I don't think you are considering how different this world would be if we made that choice.



You don't NEED electricity either but I would say this day in age it's a necessity. Sure we could do without out but the world as we know it would change drastically just as with fuel don't you think? I don't know about where you live but everywhere I have lived the electric company couldn't just raise rates to whatever they wanted, it had to be submitted and approved. What's the difference?



If you broke up OPEC to where a bunch of companies weren't banding together to make prices what they want you wouldn't hear nearly as much out of me. What they are doing is wrong and as long as you don't mind it screwing over all the little people who CANT afford to move closer to work (they cant afford a tank of gas for pete's sake) then so be it, I do mind and I can afford it fine, doesn't make it right.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Yes things would be drastically different but I stand by my statement that it is not a necessity. All those people that live in LA, NY, or Chicago CHOSE to live and work there. Necessities are food, water, and air - that's about it. The difference between electricity and gas is that if you want electricity at your house you have no choice but to buy from that specific company - there's no other way to do it. With fuel you have a choice to buy from Mobile, Exxon, BP, Marathon, Shell, etc.



How exactly do you propose that the United States break up OPEC? We have ZERO, none, nada control over OPEC. OPEC is foreign oil - the only thing we could do with OPEC is ban the importation of foreign oil or tax the heck out of it. What do you think that would do to fuel prices?

 

[SHobbs]

It's like this folks until we the people stand up and start raising nine kinds of heck it won't change. What needs to happen is that the taxpayers namely us need to just flood local and state level representatives with calls, faxes, letters and emails. What I have done is to draft a letter and save it on the puter and once a week just send it out by email. I have several elected officials in an address book and I send it to them all. I am very suprised that the secret service has not showed up on the door step yet being that some of my letters are very heated.



What about flooding the media with complaints, I know I know but they do have investigative reporters you know. It is time for a revolution.



I have said this before and I will say it again. This is mostly a facist government. Don't believe me? When was the last time the Big oil, Insurance companies, Health care providers and prescription drug makers just to name a few got the short end of a long stick and we the people came out smelling like a rose. It is time for the masses to get their heads out of the sand, way past time.

 

[RGardner]

Steve how do propose to get your food? Walk to the grocery store? How do you plan on getting your water? Just turn on the tap? All things are energy dependent! This high cost of fuel is hard on everyone but especially the agricultural economy. All other sectors have the ability to pass on the increased costs through surcharges but not ag! Ag takes what is given to them! So Steve where would you have us all live? How would you get your child to a hospital if he were in dire need of medical attention? What would the vast majority of people do for a living without energy? I think you need to rethink your statement.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

How did people survive 200 years ago before we had fuel? They did otherwise we wouldn't be here today. The human race has survived without fuel until the last 100-150 years (coal) if people were able to survive it is not a NECESSITY. Would our lives be drastically different without it? Yes it would, but that doesn't make it a necessity. If I had to I could plant a garden for our vegetables and kill venison with my bow for our meat. Water can be reached here in Michigan in about a week with a shovel.



Our fuel prices even at the $3. 60 range is still cheaper than it is in the majority of the world and they seem to be surviving ok. I don't like the price we're paying for fuel any more than anyone else - we're spending about $500 a month in fuel alone right now. We have cut back our usage where possible without drastically altering our standard of living. We could cut back much further if we absolutely had to but the cost hasn't gone high enough for that to be necessary yet.

 

[CSnyder]

I farm about 500 acres of crops every year besides all the other things I do for income and I would not and will not farm like the Amish to take my crops out and neither would thousands of other farmers. There would be an immediate shortage of food if we didn't have fuel or energy to farm with. I have seen an increasingly alarming rate of farmers selling out around me every month because they can't afford to keep farming with energy rates being so high. I can only manage to stay alive because I capitalize on their loss when they sell out and I buy their equipment at wholesale prices and sell at retail to those that can or think they can afford to keep farming. I can foresee a huge increase in the cost of feeding our families when the big corporate farms take 100% control of the market and it becomes like OPEC.



There's my food for thought! Chris

 

[RGardner]

Again I begs to differ Steve. People have been using fuel since they figured out about fire! Fuel comes in many different forms. Where would you get your seeds? How would you keep your venison? Oh yes it is possible to get along without fossil fuels but how many people would want to watch loved ones suffer because we can't get to a hospital? We don't have the energy to make the medicines that so many need to just survive? Without energy you would have no steel to make your shovel. It might take a little longer to dig that well with your hands or a stick. In the mean time you would just drink bottled water I guess!

 

[rrausch]

Back in the early 1990's when Forbes ran for President, I saw an article he published in his own magazine "Forbes". In the article he stated he thought we should do away with "inefficient small farms" and make a switch to corporate farming. In the same article he said he thought America should do "something" for all the small farmers which would be left behind, and he proposed "some sort of permanent welfare" for them. I read this article myself! #@$%!



These College-Boy, educated-idiots who now run our country are going to KILL us if we let them. Maybe running out of oil and having to go back to farming with horses would save us in the long run. Stranger things have happened. Petroleum will certainly run dry SOME day--up until this latest energy squeeze I hadn't thought that day would be in my lifetime.



We need to get some people who want to SAVE AMERICA in Political Office, and not the usual drowd of dopes, who only want to save their own Pensions and get re-elected, no matter the cost to the rest of us.

 

[djbobo]

Hmm reasonable profits?



A per gallon profit NOT a percentage



Everyone in the building industry just pass othe extra cost of the supplies to the customer. For ex. if lumber goes up by double doesn't mean the whole house goes up double. Gas tax is based on per gallon and not a percentage.



When crude was ~$25 per bar. fuel was below $1. 00 per gal. Crude doubles to over $50 a bar. - Now fuel is over $2. 50 a gal. The only thing that went up is the price of crude, nothing else. So if they did what everyone else in my line of bussines does then the price of a gal. would be around $1. 50 per gal.



In fact I know that the majority of people will actually lessen their profit margins at times to offset sudden spikes in their material costs. But when they do raise their prices it is only to pass on the cost of production - THAT'S ALL!

 

[sanyata]

How did people survive 200 years ago before we had fuel? They did otherwise we wouldn't be here today. The human race has survived without fuel until the last 100-150 years (coal) if people were able to survive it is not a NECESSITY. .

Steve, What was the population 200 years ago? The human race's survival and population explosion is due in large part to fuel in the last 100 -150 years. What would happen if we didn't have fuel now? There are simply too many people to live "off the land" as you contend. It's simply not doable or sustainable.



But I suppose we could let total caios and anarchy rien so then the Darwin theory takes over... . just don't know how we are going to dig all those graves! Might hit water though...



Doug

 

[amsoilman]

Here is an interesting article from our local paper's Editorial Opinion Colum.



QUOTE

Pumping the profits



Sunday, October 30, 2005

The product of outrageous fuel prices for most of us: wallet-emptying experiences at the corner gas station, soaring home-heating bills looming for winter and fuel surcharges for seemingly everything that gets delivered anywhere.

But the product of outrageous fuel prices for oil companies: Unimaginable profits. Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday reported its profit -- not revenue, but profit -- was $9. 9 billion for the three-month period ending Sept. 30. That's up 75 percent from the same time last year.

To put that in perspective, that's more profit in one quarter, as The New York Times pointed out, than the gargantuan corporations Time Warner and Intel earn in an entire year. As the late oil man J. Paul Getty once said, "If you can actually count your money, then you are not really a rich man. "

The people at the top of Exxon Mobil, then, must surely be rich. News was also good at the somewhat smaller ConocoPhillips, where quarterly profits were $3. 8 billion -- up 90 percent over 2004's third-quarter profits of $2 billion.

But such extravagant earnings come at a social price: Out-of-control fuel prices have already done economic damage to countless industries that rely on fuel to make and/or deliver goods. And this winter, with the cost of heating oil and natural gas dramatically higher than last year, lots of Americans will be cold and some will doubtless perish for lack of money to pay for heat.

Elected leaders are finally feeling their constituents' pain. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced last week he would be calling oil company executives to testify before Senate committees.

He also called on the Senate's investigations subcommittee to launch a probe into whether or not oil companies have been price gouging and profiteering -- especially in the wake of recent hurricanes which interrupted oil and gas supplies from reaching the market.

From the looks of it, this cycle of painfully high energy prices is not about to subside in any substantial way. Outside of Marathon Oil's plan to expand its Louisiana refinery to the tune of $2. 2 billion -- Marathon netted $770 million compared to last year's $222 million third-quarter profits -- the oil companies swimming in all these profits are expressing reluctance to expand refining capacity, which would, in theory, drive down gasoline prices.

The problem is twofold. Despite Saudi Arabia's promises to expand oil production by millions of barrels a day over the next few years, many experts doubt the country's ability -- and, perhaps, intentions -- to do that. So if considerably more oil cannot be extracted and shipped to refineries, it won't do much good to expand existing refineries, let alone build new ones. At least that's the prevailing oil company position. Also, Big Oil doesn't want to spend billions on new refineries only to risk the price of oil dropping years down the road due to conservation or alternative fuels.

Whatever the real reason, oil companies making these kinds of record profits have no incentive to loosen supplies and watch prices drop. The status quo, though harmful for the wider economy, is great for the oil business.

Among possible responses is a windfall-profits tax, with the revenue going to, say, fund research on alternative fuels and super-efficient vehicles. But once all that money starts flowing into government coffers, we have no confidence it would be spent for those original purposes.

Still, the punitive nature of a tax on oil companies would be attractive if the promised Senate investigations yield evidence of unfair pricing.

Until that time, Americans should, as we recommended earlier this fall:

* Get serious about telecommuting.

* Buy more fuel-efficient vehicles.

* Use mass transit when possible.

* Don't make unnecessary trips that waste gasoline.

* Turn down the thermostat a few degrees this winter.

Lastly, we should all urge Washington lawmakers to craft an energy policy that will not leave us prey to the kinds of price spikes that are making oil companies rich while we are miserable. END QUOTE





Wayne

amsoilman

 

[RT66DOC]

Hey Wayne, I've been meaning to ask you if Amsoil gets any of its raw materials from the big oil companies. If not, that's about all I need to put Amsoil in every engine we have. I know, I know, I oughta be doing that anyway but you get my drift, right?

 

[Dieselnutz]

I think consumers need to do what they can to reduce the use of petroleum products. Minnesota has mandated a 2% bio mixture in all Diesel sold. I think thats a start in the right direction. I have started running B20 or a higher mixture. B30 until summer. All lubricants in my truck are synthetic. Most new vehicles are also E85 compatable. I will try to keep my money from going to big oil companies. I am no tree huger but ethanol and biodiesel make a lot of sense to keep money from OPEC! $9. 9 billion profit in a quarter when we are getting gouged at the pump is sinful. The people need to raise he!! or it will continue.

 

[rbattelle]

Why did Exxon have such record profits?



-Ryan

 

[mpwalker]

Hi Tom, you are sure on top of this issue, I have also done a little more research into the issue and found that over the past 10 years or so the government, federal, state and local have raked in over 1. 34 Trillion dollars from taxes on fuel, gas and oil. This year they are expecting a big windfall in tax receipts from gas and oil sales in this county. The taxes we have paid to the government is more than triple what the oil companies all of them combined have reported in profits for the same period of time. Now one could say it is the government that is getting the windful profits, will the same people that are upset about the oil companies making money be upset by these figures? In many states we could save 20 cents or more a gallon on fuel if the government would cancel the taxes on each gallon we use. By the way the only figure I could find about per cent of profit for the oil companies was 3 per cent, but that was from a couple of years ago so do not know if that is true today. I do not like the high prices either, we are fulltimer RVers putting over 30,000 miles a year on our Tow Vehicle however I do not think there is anything to be gained by bashing the oil companies until we know if they have done something wrong. And yes some of my retirment money is in Oil companies as well as drug and many other companies. The government can help by lowering taxes on us in all areas of our lives including the tax of fuel.

 

[JFaughn]

My 1st post joined in on putting the oil Co , but the thing I'm thinking about seeing thiis all over the media is do not get caught up in the media B. S... ... . a factoid with out any relivance is just obvious mannipulation , just think about it for a moment , a co that big is going to have big profits , what were there profits this qt. the last few yrs , I think they are well worth bashing but I want my bashing to be base in truth that I can acktully back up with real info , than maybe it will have an improving effect not just polerization.