Oil Lobby Reaches Out to Citizens Peeved at the Pump

[flashl]

Source: Washington Post

Faced with a national outcry over the high price of gasoline and soaring profits for energy companies, the oil and gas industry is waging an unusually pricey campaign to burnish its image.

The American Petroleum Institute, the industry's main lobby, has embarked on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign, which includes advertising in the nation's largest newspapers, news conferences in many state capitals and trips for bloggers out to drilling platforms at sea.

The intended audience is elected officials and the public, with an emphasis on the latter. The industry is trying to convince voters -- who, in turn, will make the case to their members of Congress -- that rising energy prices are not the producers' fault and that government efforts to punish the industry, especially with higher taxes, would only make pricing problems worse.

"We decided that if we didn't do something to help people understand the basics of our industry, we'd be on the losing end as far as the eye could see," said Red Cavaney, the institute's president.

Washington Post

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/08/AR2008050803143.html?hpid=topnews

---

This should go over well.

A taxpayer subsidized industry making billions that is using its profits to convince the consumer who is selling heirlooms to buy their products that 'everything is OK'.

[Rene]

1. Their ultimate goal is drilling in Anwar...they're running up the prices like this so that

sheeple will agree to it out of desperation. I'll always say NO to drilling in that pristine preserve. Save it in case future generations are really desparate for energy.

[shaniqua6392]

2. I am happy to pay $4.00 a gallon until.....

the Republicans are swept out of office in November. They can not get this crap through before then. I hope. But you can tell Bush is just trying to wrap up all the loose ends before he heads back to the ranch. The Dems in Washington need to show some backbone and hold them off for a few months.

[Thor_MN]

18. Change that to desparate for petroleum feedstocks and I'll sign on.

It shouldn't be used for something as easily replaceable as energy. There are lots of ways to make energy, far fewer ways to generate a mix of hydrocarbons like crude oil.

[grannylib]

21. What ANWR has to offer in terms of energy is minimal, and the effects

of drilling there wouldn't affect supply nor prices for decades; it's a total bunch of shit. They're just trying to wring every dollar they can out of this finite resource before we HAVE to move on to something else, and what if Big Oil hasn't yet figured out a way to take ownership of, and charge people for, air and sunshine and wind just yet???

[Javaman]

33. exactly. 6 months worth of oil (at current rate of usage) 10 years from now

when it would actually come on line would amount to virtually nothing at those future usage numbers.

[bullwinkle428]

25. I'm not so sure they're all that fired up about drilling in ANWR -

they're making insane profits right now, and that would require a huge new investment on their part.

Look how all of their CEOs said they really weren't interested in building new refineries, in the Congressional hearings just a couple of weeks, contrary to the talking points that wingnuts are always shouting - "these damn treehugging libruls won't let us build them"!

[bdamomma]

28. what friggin hypocites, they say we are addicted to oil but

then again want to drill in that beautiful area, like we can't think of other alternative fuels to use??? it's all about money and making more of it. Greedy bastards all of them.

[BigDaddy44]

40. Why?

That would make the price go down. I think they like the prices quite fine right where they are.

[0rganism]

43. No, their ultimate goal is PROFITS

Until we realize that, we'll always be at the mercy of the people who soak us.

Drilling ANWR is just bullshit. Some Alaskan congresscritters wanted to get oil company infrastructure invested there to secure their jobs and get some more lobbyist cash, that's the ONLY incentive there ever was to drill ANWR. The amount of oil there is really miniscule, relative to the overall global production numbers. It has nothing to do with supply security, or trust me, it'd already be drilled.

Now the ANWR thing has become nothing more than rightwing agitprop used to make environmentalists look like evil abusers of the working class.

The oil companies have ZERO incentive to increase production at this point, they're posting record profits. In fact, they're so profitable, they have to allocate a certain amount to PR to advertise to the public that they really deserve their record profits at a time when working people are going broke because of them and congress is contemplating a windfall tax on the industry.

[GliderGuider]

45. Four cents a gallon -- that's some profit.

Actually, AP reported that Exxon's net profit for Q1, 2008 was four cents a gallon, down from 8 cents a year ago.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_oil_4

Exxon Mobil does not release the amount it pays for crude but said it's been in line with market prices.

At the same time, the company said it made about 4 cents per gallon on petroleum-product sales in the most-recent quarter, down from 8 cents a gallon in the year-ago quarter. Those products include gasoline and diesel.

[0rganism]

49. 4 cents a gallon adds up when everyone's buying, obviously

But that's not the point. What do you suppose the Exxon source includes and excludes in the calculation? Is it gross revenue, or net economic profit after all the bills are paid? How much do you suppose they wrote off in asset depreciation? Do you suppose he's comparing apples to apples? And did you catch the part about how their profits are boosted up by their "outstanding portfolio of integrated businesses"? They're probably buying most of their crude from some of those same integrated businesses in their portfolio -- which amounts to an internal transfer.

[icnorth]

77. Four cents a gallon eh?

“...AP reported that Exxon's net profit for Q1, 2008 was four cents a gallon, down from 8 cents a year ago.”

Good old Alice and Peter, right down the old rabbit hole. Lets run some numbers shall we.

2008 1st Qtr. Net profit Exxon Mobile $10.89 billion

Production: 2,474,000 bbl/day.
Gallons/bbl: 31 US
Production days: 91

Total production: 6,979,154,000 gallons January 1 - March 31.

Exxon reported net Profit.....................$10,890,000,000
Net Profit according to AP at $0.04/gal........279,166,160

Run those numbers through the cypher for us again,would you Alice; at $.04/gal the $279 mil profit only covers 70% of Lee Raymonds $400,000,000.00 retirement getaway. Seems to be about $10.6 bil unaccounted for.

http://tinyurl.com/4aydd7">Businesswire.com (Exxon Mobile

[alarimer]

79. 4 cents a gallon my ass!

Liars.

They are scum.

[depakid]

3. Leave it to Pravda ..err the Post

API quote: "We decided that if we didn't do something to help people understand the basics of our industry...."

Consumer Federation quote: "They complain that the industry is using its outlandish profits to make even more money, and that its advertisements...."

LOL.

[liberal N proud]

7. American media makes Pravda look like armatures

What could be better, multiple sources spewing the same message. People are deceived into believing the media outlets in this country are independent.

[graywarrior]

4. So now we have to be schooled (brainwashed) into understanding their industry?

Here's what I learned over the past almost 8 years:

Bush/Cheney = Oil Industry

[eilen]

5. Attn: Oil Companies..... FUCK YOU (warning, rant)

Sorry I have resorted to profanity here folks but honestly, can you stand it? They are screwing us over, raking in billions of profits yet still want us to ....ummm... like them?

Switch to alternative fuels, more solar and wind power, local development and distribution of resources, pursue liveliehoods in your own neighborhood and build with local available resources. Continue to eliminate the need to ship crap in, invest in more mass transit and bicycles etc. Can we ever possibly make big oil just an option?, wean ourselves off the tit so to speak? Can they become, um, irrelvant?

First chance I get, I want to vote for someone to regulate the shit out of them, tax them, tariff their imports and penalize them with heavy fines for every stinking tanker that leaks, every single domestic form of oil ecological damage and make them the tobacco company equivalent of the 90's.
Fuck them. Greedy bastards.

[Mandate My Ass]

51. Excellent rant

They have the nerve to tell us we should vote against our own interests and let them gouge us because it would be worse for us if we elected someone to stop their criminally obscene profiteering.

I may have been born at night but it wasn't last night, fuckers. :grr:

[Greyhound]

52. That's exactly why we will never get the opportunity to vote for someone

that will do that. They decide which of their puppets we will get to choose between.

[SammyWinstonJack]

81. Yep! They play us like a cheap drum and we LIKE it!

x( historical election x(

[bluestateguy]

6. Crap like this make me favor outright nationalization of their industry

They could spend all that money they are using on their PR campaign to LOWER THE FUCKING PRICES OF MY GAS!!!!!

[jonnyra]

8. They absolutely should be nationalized

Something so critical to the lives of all citizens should not be controlled by a bunch of money grubbing corporate thieves. And having an administration full of oil barons and war mongers isnt helping!

Unregulated capitalism and an evil republican cult has turned this nation into something very dark and very sad.

[colonel odis]

9. If gas if $4.00 a gallon, it's our fault.

this isn't my first oil crisis. i learned to drive during the nixon years, when gas stations were closed on sunday. i saw people hurl bricks through gas station plate glass windows during the carter administration. (of course, if you did that now, you'd probably be thrown under the jail for such a heinous offense.)

gas keeps going up, yet people keep buying SUVs and gigantic pieces of shit that drink gas like w sucks down jack daniel's. in fact, i saw a guy with a gigantic dodge ram truck bearing a bumper sticker that said "sucking gas and kicking ass." as if overcompensating for a short member by driving one of those things weren't enough, he has to let everyone know he's proud to be bent over by the oil companies.

until we start buying cars that get better gas mileage... until we start combining trips ... until we honestly try to conserve and cut back, the oil companies are going to have a free ride like this. the choice is totally and completely ours.

[flashl]

11. Some states appear to hear your points ...

MA:Mass transit gains new appreciation
AZ:Group seeks tax increase for new roads, mass transit
UT:cheaper mass transit is compared to driving
Mass transit the answer to North Texas traffic problems

[bdamomma]

26. I hope the Mass transit system gets utilized to its utmost,

other countries use their mass transit systems what is up with us, oh, silly me, the love affair with our cars.

[Trajan]

31. People are tarding in the SUV's that Cheney and his asshole told them to buy

You can buy a recently used SUV for a song now at used car lots everywhere ...

Big pickup trucks as well .... The biggest movers in used cars right now are small displacement vehicles ....

[NickB79]

38. "Tarding in the SUV's"

:rofl:

I know you meant "trading in", but that typo works so well!

[GliderGuider]

10. 09 May 2008 11:10 GMT: Tapis crude oil spot price is $131.81/bbl

8 of the 11 crude oil benchmarks prices listed here are over $120.
Nymex Light Sweet Crude futures are now trading at $125.60

If you think it's oil companies causing this, you need to do some more reading. Over 60% of all the oil in the world is now owned by National Oil companies (i.e. well over half the oil in the world has been nationalized). Italians are paying $8.25 a gallon for regular unleaded.

This is a global problem, all the bitching at Big Oil is seriously misplaced. They are as much victims of the world oil situation (aka Peak Oil) as you are.

On edit: The price of Tapis just went up over a dollar a barrel in 20 minutes...

[soothsayer]

12. Well, I notice those 'victims' are making record profits each quarter, while

I'm not. Hard for me to join you in pitying poor old big oil.

[GliderGuider]

13. Well, there are oganizations like MEND in Nigeria that are trying to do something about it.

If you feel strongly enough about it, there are things you could do besides pissing and moaning.

[jonnyra]

14. You know I might agree

If the oil companies were not reporting obscene profits every QUARTER! BILLIONS IN PROFIT EVERY QUARTER. So you can choose to let 'em off the hook but as long as I see people being pushed into having to decide whether to fill up and get to work or buy food and not go hungry I aint buying any that shit. Its fucking evil is what it is.

[GliderGuider]

15. In that case you should push for the complete nationalization of the oil industry

Then your government could bring down the pump price to a level you find acceptable. Of course, there's still the small matter of the 2/3 of the oil you Americans use that's imported, whose price is set on the global export market. That market is under immense upward pressure due to supply constraints and increasing demand from Chindia.

Do you really think that plowing the oil company profits back into gas price subsidies would make a lick of difference at the pumps? The reaction against oil company profits is irrational in the face of the global supply situation. Oil production has peaked, and demand has not -- what does economics 101 say that will do to oil prices?

[flashl]

16. More reading ...

And the true culprit of high gas prices is...

Tuesday's article, "Food vs. fuel a global myth," (May 6) mistakenly places blame on OPEC for the outrageous gasoline prices. In fact, the global market system, wherein commodities traders bid the price of oil higher and higher, is the true culprit. OPEC does not dictate the price. The price of oil has been driven to heights that OPEC never would have dared to ask or expect. The panic and greed of oil traders affects the market price more than any actions by OPEC, which supplies as much oil as our refineries can process. ... When we change the system by which oil and other energy products are priced, the cost will more closely track the realities of supply and demand, as opposed to the current principles of panic and speculation.

[lark]

46. Oh, come on

Poor little oil companies, we just started a war in Iraq to fatten their coffers and it's worked to perfection from their pov. They are the conspirators that are driving this war, the junta in Myanmar and many other situations. Big oil deliberately didn't build refineries to push up prices. Everyone complains about W, but what is he anyway - just a tool of big oil and the military industrial complex?

[L0oniX]

17. Record profits and then an ad campaign which is an expense that they write off...

and they are subsidized. Fuck them rich bastards. Everyone should know where they all live. Maybe that would put a little fear of the people into them.

[grannylib]

19. And to think people made fun of Jimmy Carter when he warned about

just this kind of crap, back in the '70s - if he had not been ridiculed, and if congress had acted THEN to put some money behind alternate energy, just think where we might be today as far as not being dependent on fuckin' OIL for everything from fuel to plastic to whatever...and watching the fat cats get even fatter while the rest of us struggle on incomes that have been declining, in real terms, for yonks...

Nice try, Big Oil...save it for someone stupid.

[Bandit]

20. Gee the Industry is spending multi million dollars on advertising

Exxon alone makes a NET PROFIT of OVER One Hundred and Ten Million dollars a DAY. This Ad campaign is surely going to bankrupt them...

[8 track mind]

22. Does anyone remember

big oil pulling the same stunt during the first gulf war, when prices started climbing for no good reason? I vaguely remember Big Oil sending out junk mail and taking out huge full page ads claiming it was a "supply problem". This is the same damn thing 'cept on a much grander scale. Its fucking bullshit anyway you slice it.

[GliderGuider]

23. Here's an objective analysis of oil company profits and gas pricing

Oil Company Profits and High Gas Prices: Here We Go Again

It won't convert anyone who is emotionally invested in the "Big Oil is Evil" meme, but it contains some useful insights into how the oil markets work.

In 2006, the three largest US-based energy conglomerates —- ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhilips -— posted a combined after-tax profit of $72 billion. According to this article:

What does the average oil company make today on the sale of a gallon of gas? Ten cents.

The federal tax on gasoline, on the other hand, is nearly twice that. Then there's state gasoline taxes. (If you live in New York, for example, you're paying 68 cents a gallon in taxes.)

If Exxon is gouging us at ten cents a gallon, what exactly is the federal government doing to us at 18.4 cents a gallon?

And Exxon's profit margins are only 10.7%. Profit margins at Microsoft, on the other hand, are 26%.

The absolute profit numbers look big,but that's only because oil is a really, really, really big industry. The cost of all the oil consumed in the world today (on this one single day) will be about $10 billion. For just one day. The global market cost of this year's crude oil (not counting the cost of refining or transportation) will push $4 trillion.

Think about it.

Big Oil has a lot to answer for (e.g. destroying public transportation in North America and screwing over countries like Nigeria), but price gouging in the current market isn't it.

[mikeytherat]

36. What exactly is the federal government doing to us at 18.4 cents a gallon?

http://www.artba.org/economics_research/reports/gas_tax_history.htm

mikey_the_rat

[profgoose]

37. Yes, but no one wants to hear that...

...we demonize big oil (which I am no fan of either, btw) instead of addressing the supply and demand problem with our daily habits.

Sorry folks, but GliderGuider is right here. We can't produce enough of the stuff we have been running our economy on because you and I use it.

LEARN!

[Arctic Dave]

60. The statement they are making only 10 cents a gallon

is a bit misleading. You have to remember they own the process from the wellhead to the pump and their subsidiary also take their share of the profits too.

Production takes their profits
Pipelines take their profits
Shipping takes their profits
Refineries take their profits
Retail takes their profits

Every time the crude or refined product changes hands their is profit removal, which in most cases is all the same company.

[seasat]

76. That would make it about 3% profit on a gallon of gas

Unless they are making enormous profits from other petroleum products, it's hard to believe that they could make a 10.7% profit with only 3% profit on gas. I agree with your analysis that the article is misleading. A 3% return is below inflation for many years and there's no way you could stay in business with those margins. Comparing them to other industries, the oil companies are doing pretty good, they're currently at 9.6% profit with a 41 price to free cash flow ratio.

Added on edit: I looked it up. The 10 cent number is the markup the retailer makes on the gasoline not the profit the oil company makes as the article implies.

[Hugin]

24. They're just trying to get close enough to get your wallet... Pick-pockets do it all the time.

Mark my words.

[Magleetis]

27. Nothing like a good

old fashioned propaganda campaign to keep the cash flowing. They want it all their way.

[nvme]

29. I hope we begin a reign of terror like france.

so many crimes upon crimes to prosecute with regards to the current administration. it will be a wonder if we will get anything done.

[struggle4progress]

54. No thanks. I'm pretty sure my own head would be one of the first lopped off.

[annabanana]

30. (not enough lipstick in the world)

just sayin'

[Zorra]

32. Exxon Mobil 1st-quarter profit up 17 percent.

Exxon Mobil 1st-quarter profit up 17 percent
By JOHN PORRETTO
The Associated Press
Published: May 1st, 2008 10:00 AM
Last Modified: May 1st, 2008 10:01 AM

HOUSTON -- Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said today that record crude prices helped its first-quarter profit climb 17 percent to $10.9 billion, the second-biggest U.S. quarterly corporate profit ever. But the results still fell short of Wall Street's lofty forecasts, and Exxon shares fell more than 4 percent in early afternoon trading.

The company's refining operations limited its overall profits growth because prices for crude oil rose even faster than the increase drivers see at the gasoline pump.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/392734.html

Let me get this straight. The oil companies want to use million of dollars of the profit that they make on us through price gouging in order to finance a propaganda campaign designed to convince us that, despite the fact that oil companies are posting consistently enormous record profits, the high price of gas is not their fault.

Yeah, like any Democrat is gonna buy into that one.

But put it on Fox News, and republicans will swallow the kool-aid like the good little corporate lemmings that they are.

[JasonBlatt]

34. THROW ONE THING BACK: www.energystate.org

There is a definitive solution to global energy security....and by extension civilization security.

www.energystate.org

The one big LIE in the energy industry today is that through a diversity of new not so perfect energy technologies we will have energy security: solar, wind, etc.....

There is one definitive solution....but it means international cooperation among countries led by the people for the people.

www.energystate.org

[KansDem]

35. "Oil Lobby Reaches Out ..."

Watch your wallet!

[OhioChick]

39. That's Screwed Up...

Use the multi-millions to LOWER the price of gasoline.

[GliderGuider]

41. How much would it lower the pump price?

Their after tax profit margin is only about ten cents a gallon...

[GliderGuider]

42. At $125/bbl, a gallon of the raw crude oil needed to make gasoline costs $3.00

Then on top of paying that $3.00 for the raw gallon of crude oil you also need to pay for: refining the crude oil into gasoline; transporting both the crude oil and the refined gasoline; the federal and state taxes; and the poor schmuck running the Qwik-E-Mart needs to make some profit to stay in business. All this has to come out of that last $1.00 a gallon. Then the Oil Company needs to pay its taxes. By the time all is said and done there's ten cents of after-tax profit left for the oil company whose name is on the pumps.

In the United States, 2/3 of all the oil you use is purchased on the international market, where it's decidedly NOT the big oil companies like Exxon setting the price - it's thousands of traders all over the world (including Europe, Japan and Chindia), all of whom are in competition with each other to get all the oil they need at the best possible price. Most of the money paid for crude oil on the international market goes to National Oil Companies, not to Big Oil.

Somebody show me where the gouging is in this system. The only places I can see for it is in the initial price of the crude oil set by international traders and maybe a bit by opportunistic gas station owners. Big oil gets ten cents out of every $4.00 gallon.

This thread is a perfect example of the triumph of ideology and emotion over reason.

[BigDaddy44]

47. Its funny how you're responded with logic and facts

And everyone has just flown right past you. Blaming "international traders" is no fun. We don't know who they are. Blaming an oil company is MUCH easier.

[mbperrin]

50. Of course those same companies are not exactly offering to give

back the $18 billion in corporate welfare they receive each year, are they?

Nor are they bashful about promoting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, where we buy oil and pump it back in the ground, raising demand even more than what's actually being used.

And they haven't minded eliminating all independents, consolidating all stores, getting me to pump my own and putting the arm on all their suppliers with slow pay and huge discounts for services, have they?

I worked in this industry for two decades, and they are neither helpless nor victims. They are very good at getting money and accounting for it in strange ways to make it appear their profits are lower than what they actually have to spend.

On the other hand, I am in the middle of doing something for me and mine. I'm converting our sedan to completely electric and installing solar panels to recharge the batteries. Now if the government would give $18 billion in direct payments to consumers to do the same, we could do something about the price of gas by reducing demand and immediately.

[Earth_First]

55. However, where does the windfall subsidy and the tax breaks sit in this equation?

We nationalize the windfall subsidies and grant substantial tax breaks into the entire equation.

They are most certainly making more than ten cents per gallon after the aforementioned is included.

[AdHocSolver]

61. If they were making only 10 cents a gallon profit, they wouldn't be making $billions in profits.

As another poster pointed out, the oil industry is vertically integrated so that from the well to the gas pump, many of the processes to produce gasoline from crude oil and transport it (remember the Exxon Valdez) are controlled by the same company. Each company makes profit off of the process, but these companies are all "owned" by the same people. The 10 cents profit per gallon is pure accounting fiction.

Enron pulled the same scam. They supposedly did a lot of business with independent companies, but these companies were actually all "owned" by the same people.

Beyond that, a lot of the gas tax we pay goes right back to the oil companies in tax breaks, so that these oil companies pay very little in taxes on the profits that they make.

As for big oil companies like Exxon not controlling oil prices, what are you smoking that produces such a laughable premise? ALL of international trade is controlled by multinational corporate cartels, and to say otherwise displays total ignorance of economic reality or purposeful obfuscation.

[Psephos]

67. You're virtually alone on this thread thinking like an economist

when everyone else sounds like W. during his Axis of Evil speech (substitute oil cos. for Iran/Iraq/NK)

The record oil company profits are mostly paper. Each company has a reserve of oil that it controls (usually by contract). These reserves have been on the books for anywhere from a couple of years to decades. By exploring for new oil sources and then leasing the rights to drill those tracts, the company adds to its reserves. By producing them (removing and selling the oil) they deplete their reserves. Keep that in mind. It's like a bathtub with the faucet on and the drain open.

Federal accounting laws require a "mark-to-market" asset valuation. In layman's terms, each time the price of oil goes up, the companies are required to revalue their reserves based on the new price, and immediately report that as profit, which is then subject to taxation. However, the profit is not cash (i.e., the oil is liquid but its value is not). As an analogy, if a person bought a house for $100,000 in 1995, and its value in 2005 was $300,000, applying the oil accounting laws would require the homeowner to pay a gains tax on the increased value of the house in cash, despite the fact that he/she hadn't sold the house. If housing prices crashed later, the "profit" tax would already have been paid, and the homeowner would be double-screwed.

Oil companies cannot convert their reserves into instant cash because an oil field takes decades to pump out. However, that oil in the ground does get treated as instant profit on the books...until the price goes down. Then it gets treated as a loss.

If, as financially savvy people know, the speculative bubble that has pushed oil so high bursts, and the price of oil falls to its actual market value based on supply and demand (roughly $50 - $60/bbl) then all those oil company paper profits will suddenly go poof, too.

It doesn't make sense to tax "windfall profits" when those profits will only be realized if the price of oil stays where it is for many years to come. That may happen, but anyone familiar with the history of speculative bubbles knows that's a toss of the dice at best. Meanwhile, the companies have to pay taxes with cash, and they have less free cash than the simple-minded profit meme seems to predict. Remember, the cash profits they have are what they use to develop new sources. If all the cash goes into tax payments on paper profits, then it won't go into developing new sources and maintaining or improving old ones. In other words, there will be additional supply pressure on prices.

I'm not arguing against taxes for oil companies, nor do I think they're anything but a bunch of cut-throats. But this widespread misunderstanding about the source of their profits is bound to lead to policies and perceptions that are self-defeating or worse. Of course, it's a lot easier to toss slogans around than actual study and analyze complex systems.

[GetTheRightVote]

44. I do not believe a word they have to say, they are about making money, the more the merrier

they are, the are criminals as far as I am concerned.
They act as a monopoly and steal the money right out of our pockets.
I can not believe the public and our govt have not already gone after them.

[fascisthunter]

48. Nationalize Oil... take the piggy bank away from these wealthy Scumbags

let them bitch and whine... they don't give a shit about anybody else but themselves anyway.

[whatchamacallit]

53. All time record profits in the billions and "It's not our fault"

Okay then, what's your excuse? Rampant speculation, peak oil...?

[Amonester]

56. Hey! It's how "un-checked Communo-Capitalism" work.

It's the $ystem they use's fault. Not theirs!!

The $ystem "works" like this:

The riches (them = 1.5%) get richer while their machines destroy the planet.
The poors (us = 98.5%) get poorer while our unborn-yet's get the bankrupcy bill.

They all use it.
They buy politicians because they can (using our money).

[nam78_two]

57. For Exxon Mobil, $10.9 Billion Profit Disappoints -NYTimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/business/01oil-web.html?ref=worldbusiness

>>snip
Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that its first-quarter net income rose 17 percent, boosted by surging oil prices.

But even as it posted the second-most profitable quarter in its history, Exxon’s earnings managed to disappoint investors because of a drop in oil production. Shares closed down $3.37, to $89.70, on a day the Dow industrial average rose 189.87 points. The company missed earnings estimates by a dime a share.
>>

:eyes:
Here is a message from this citizen to Exxon Mobil-please go Cheney yourself.
Creeps....

[AndyTiedye]

58. Jacking the Prices Up Now So They Can Lower Them Just Before the Election

When they drop them just below $4 in October, people will say "happy days are here again" and vote for the Repigs.
Yes, they really think we are that stupid. They are probably right.

[crimsonblue]

59. They brought this problem about themselves..

When gas was cheap (only ten years ago it was under $1.00/gal) the oil companies refused to invest any money in technology. Many refineries simply shut down and waited for prices to rise. Meanwhile, they set their sights overseas, and did their best to steal the oil from other countries (La and South America, Africa, pretty much anywhere that was not physically taken). fucking bastards.

[flashl]

62. Wonder how much PR needed to say "sorry we poisoned the water"?

Oil Giants to Settle Water Suit

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, which include 153 public water systems in New York, California and 15 other states, claimed that the additive, a chemical called methyl tertiary butyl ether, or M.T.B.E., was a defective product that led to widespread contamination of groundwater. The suit contended that the chemical was used by oil companies, even though they knew of the environmental and health risks that it posed.

Or, after Katrina "we got a tax-free pass to poison the air with the PROMISE to build more refineries"?

The Gasoline for America's Security Act of 2005 H. Res. 3893

"To expedite the construction of new refining capacity in the United States, to provide reliable and affordable energy for the American people, and for other purposes."

HR 3893, Gasoline for America's Security Act, is a plan that increases air pollution under the guise of increasing domestic oil production. The United States has not built a refinery since 1976, and in a series of memos in the 1990s, major energy companies warned they needed to reduce the number of refineries to boost profits.” (Washington Post, 10/6/05).

[Greyhound]

63. One question; Which oil/energy company does GliderGuider work for? n/t

[GliderGuider]

64. Sorry, I work as a lowly project manager for the Canadian Federal Government

Why is it that when someone declines to join the two minute hate they are immediately branded as a stooge for the villain du jour? I believe that what we are seeing, at the pumps and in geo-politics, is primarily a reflection of the global oil supply/demand situation. I don't need to be in the pay of Exxon to believe that. In fact Exxon would rather you never heard the words Peak Oil, and just kept on driving your Hummer.

I think we are on the brink of an utterly disastrous turn of events in the global oil supply. I further believe that the behaviour we're seeing from Big Oil, the National Oil Companies, the American government, the Russian government, the Venezuelan government, the Saudi government, the Iranian government -- in fact the government of every major oil exporting or importing nation on the planet -- reflects an unspoken recognition of Peak Oil and its global consequences.

Faced with a calamity of the scale I believe Peak Oil represents, I see no need to get worked up over whether the current gas prices are unacceptable to the non-negotiable American way of life. There is much, much bigger shit about to come down on everybody. In fact I expect oil prices to break $500/bbl within 5 years. Compared to the effect that will have on the global economy, our current worries about a few dimes here or there on the price of a gallon are going to seem like fond nostalgia.

[Amonester]

65. Sorry, (well, not really...) I don't believe one word they say...

And I am not the only one.

But, if anything you say is true, let's say: "Show us the books (the real books, not the "cooked" ones...)"

Otherwise...

You know...

Like "they" say "inflation" is at what, around 2%? LOL!!

The "capitalist shills" must be kidding, right?

But, it ain't "funny" at all to "make ends meet" for the average Joe.



Edited 'cuz typo.

[GliderGuider]

66. I'm not saying Big Oil are good guys, because they're emphatically NOT.

I'm saying that there are much bigger forces than Total, Chevron or even Exxon at work on the price of gas. Any machinations they might be up to are small beer in the face of the movements of international capital, the actions of the Russian and Saudi governments, or the 3-year ongoing stagnation of global oil production.

I know $4.00 gas isn't funny for the average Joe, but yelling at Big Oil over it is a waste of breath and adrenaline. Believe it or not, there ain't a lot they can do about it. Say you got legislation against them that forced them to cough up 50 cents a gallon. Hell, make it a buck. That takes it down from $4.00 to $3.00. Then over the next two and a half years the price of crude goes from $125 to $250. That would push the price of gas on up to $7.00, and you'd have already wrung all the blood you can from the Big Oil turnip.

And the price of oil will be up to $250 in two and a half years, like it or not. The price has been doubling every 2.5 years since the end of 1998 -- it's gone up from $10 to $120 in those ten years - and there's no reason whatsoever to expect that rise to slow down now.

[4dsc]

69. But its easier for the sheeple..

Its easier for the average joe to place blame on big oil instead of trying to understand the ramifications of peak oil.. they are like deer in the headlights with the coming oil crisis and will deny they have anything to do with it until the very end..

And while we cannot prevent peak oil from occurring, the biggest oil field in the world today is conservation.. But I don't expect a fat and lazy American to change their collective driving habits anytime in the near future. They will go down kicking and screaming about high gas price before trying to understand the real reasons behind the them..

[flashl]

70. Oil company ads to help the average Joe understand oil company accounting

Where does your gasoline dollar go?

- 72% Crude Oil
- 16% Refineries, etc.
- 12% Taxes
=100% Costs = 0% Profits valued in billions?

Colbert on gas prices and oil profits

The gas industry must have had a bake sale to pay for their ad in The USA Today.

[Psephos]

68. Question: why do you use an ad hominem instead of an actual argument? n/t

[Greyhound]

71. It was a question, not an argument. He answered it, What you are doing here, I have no idea. n/t

[GliderGuider]

74. No, actually your question was an ad hominem

Because it addressed my personal situation as opposed to the arguments I was making. I've been around the internet long enough now so that rather than getting upset at yet another anonymous handle taking a personal shot I used it as an opportunity to expand the discussion.

Your question assumed that I worked for "the enemy" and the only unknown was what capacity I worked in. A more legitimate question could have been, "GliderGuider, do you work for an oil company?"

[killbotfactory]

72. And before you know it they're running away with your wallet

The invisible hand at work, picking your pocket.

[Ellen Forradalom]

73. "Burnish their image"?

Burnish this, assholes.

[InkAddict]

75. Why am I reminded of how BC/BS of NE Ohio and Med Mutl

spent $thousands in the early 80s through the Cleveland-based Silverstein ad agency to convince consumers that their merger would keep subscriber premiums low...meanwhile, they canned vested employees, made the newly unemployed sign "the waiver" in order to get their severence, and the CEO sent out holiday greeting cards to the relieved-of-income wishing "health" and "prosperity" just as the checks came to a stop. "Nothing personal, just business..."

Oh, and another thing...those Big Oil companies do bring us great TV shows. All those warm and fuzzy arts and entertainment...

[Blue_Tires]

78. sadly, there won't be a shortage of americans buying into their shiny pr campaign

get the proper talking points out to the senators, rush and the wall street journal, and by this time next year we'll be having fundraisers for exxon-mobil

[flashl]

80. Peekaboo

A peek behind the price at the U.S. gas pump

From Capitol Hill to Wall Street to the campaign trail, the recent surge in oil prices is quickly threatening to supplant the mortgage crisis as the country's leading economic issue. Last week, prices for crude set another record, finishing at $125.96 a barrel on Friday, while gasoline prices closed in on $4 a gallon.

...

While no one disputes that China and other emerging economies are craving more crude, the stunning rise of oil from $62 a year ago is hard to explain as only a matter of supply and demand. After all, analysts have noted adequate inventories.

Over the same period, the dollar has declined nearly 15 percent against the euro, and the jump in oil prices "is very much driven by the dollar," says Roger Diwan, a managing director at PFC Energy, a consulting firm in Washington.

Simply put, buying oil has become a way for hedge funds, pension funds and other institutional investors to offset their exposure to dollar-based assets like United States stocks and bonds, Diwan says. And many traders have followed the market's momentum, aggravating the trend.

IHT