:shock: Ouchie again! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! JO'Co's Chevron credit card bill for the month of May: $403.15 BTW- last year Mrs. JO'Co and I flew round-trip to Indianapolis, 2,400 miles away, for $486.00...
George, When I was in New York about a month ago, I thought I heard on the news that Jersey was going to offer self serve. Also, at that time, the Jersey stations I visited were less expensive with full service than New York was with self service.
Jersey scrapped the self serve idea due to a public outcry against it. It's cheaper here thanm most places where you pump your own so why bother?
I was told by a guy that works in the industry, that there is so much oil in tankers up by Alaska, but they won't allow them to come into the US. There is plenty of oil but they want to make money and as long as the politicians let them, they will keep the prices high. BS! $100 a week just for work, this sucks!
Careful NDfan77 or you might upset the contigent around here that espouses everything is beautiful and couldn't be better thanks to our illustrious allstar group in political power that has no oil affiliations whatsoever.
MCG do you have a target price that gas should be at if our Pres/VP weren't in the clutches of BigOil? Think it would go back to the Clinton years? How is all of this going to dovetail with the comming Ethanol/Gas combo? I've read that Ethanol is going to drive up the cost of gas because it's expensive and it is also a commodity that rises and falls with the vagarites of the weather. Will be be in the clutches of Big Corn in the future?
I hear Congress finally may pass some sort of bill that will give the consumer a choice in cable television which should enable some competitive choices in service providers for that industry hopefully. You can buy a $40,000.00 SUV or you can buy a $20,000.00 sedan. You can shop for airfares and fly the low cost carrier. You can switch phone companies for a better deal. In other words almost every American staple has price competition but somehow the Big Oil companies continue to get away with fleecing practices and I suspect it is mostly because of staunchly defensive Republicans who stubbornly refuse to admit that there is anything amiss with the pricing practices of their buddies and it's A-ok for Big Oil to make unheard of profits and pay ex-CEOs outrageous compensation packages. If the ex-CEO of RCA or Westinghouse or GM or AT&T or MCI or Northwest Airlines or Maytag or John Deere received this kind of compensation package I can assure it would never be because the lack of price competition allowed these companies to charge astronomical, monopolistic prices for their products to the American consumer.
Interesting article from 2004 that addresses the issue before it became the crisis that it is today: http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/gas_prices.html Also, Cheney's energy task force early in the Bush presidency recommended subsidies for Big Oil and did nothing to inhibit or prevent the mergers that would make for an even greater stranglehold on prices to the consumer by Big Oil: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501842.html I truly never paid attention this story at the time but apparently Condi Rice served on the board of directors at Chevron and directed it's public policy until she accepted the position on W's staff as NSA: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/05/05/MN223743.DTL And yet....W and his staff have no ties to Big Oil and certainly are not Big Oil advocates. You gotta be kiddin me!
MCG, this is an old, tired emotional tirade that must somehow provide you comfort. You offer not a shred of factual evidence and ignore relevant evidence of a material nature that doesn't meet your emotional needs. You grasp with both hands a somebody heard somebody say charge that there is enough oil in tankers being withheld from supply in order to artificially keep prices at inflated levels.....a charge that has a much basis in fact as does Elvis' martian love children. Absurd..... If you want to do something about it, sell your gas guzzler, use less energy, fill up at the lowest priced station or stop at one of the scores of Chavez's Venezuelan Citgo stations in your area. He and President Bush are about as far away from "buddies" as any two heads of state anywhere. Terry
You beat me to it Terry. Many Americans do have choices, many who commute to the city from the 'burbs can utilize public transportation. Granted it's not as convenient but it's an option. They can also carpool. Here in Houston at the "Park and Ride" locations single drivers get in a line and accept riders for a fee so they can use the HOV lane. It seems crazy to me since you don't know who's getting in the car with you, but there was an article in the Chronicle last year about the phenoma. Of course if you drive a car that gets less than 30 miles to a gallon you can certainly sell it and buy one of the many cars available that get 40 miles to the gallon. Granted you will be driving a small car, but that's a choice. Europeans laugh at US drivers who complain about the high price of gas! I guess the German Chancellor, the French Pres, the Queen, etc are all in the pockets of big Oil as well! Terry
Don't forget the Dutch, the Italians and the Chinese....hell, the Chinese national oil companies sport profitability ratios far superior to poor XOM. Tis true, Chirac's TOTAL/FINA, Chavez's Citgo, Blair's BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Hu's CNOOC are all in together...... :roll: Imagine the shenanigans that must be going on in the Nanking outback....! :lol: Terry
"Don't drive gas guzzlers" is such a cop out answer. I have a family mini-van and a '97 Lumina sedan for work. I am in outside sales and pay for my own gas. Asking disadvantaged lower income or even middle income people to give up their SUV ( which they don't have in the first place) is utter nonsense and insensitive and illustrates that you don't have a better answer. Terry....did you read my links? I was surprised to find out Condi's Big Oil connection with Chevron.
MCG, the better answer?????? The better answer is to reduce the world demand and dependence on oil. Buying more fuel efficient vehicles and reducing demand is 1/2 of the supply/demand equation which is SOLELY responsible for the price increases. The Lib/Dems have done their best to limit our access to available domestic supply, so it's not a difficult equation. The United States provides less than 8%(!) of the world oil production...if you subscribe to the theory that the price of any good is a function of its supply/demand dynamic - and you seem like a smart guy so there is some evidence that you should - how else do you think we can effect some influence over open market forces? How can you honestly believe that the Head of State of a country that provides less than 1 barrel in 12 of supply can manipulate prices contrary to that which market forces dictate for the remainder of the 11 of 12 barrels??? Absurd....absolutely absurd. The fact that Secretary Rice once served on the Board of a large oil company is evidence of exactly what.....only that she served on the Board of a large oil company. MCG, I have served on the Board of several companies. One of which was a large financial services company, another was a large transaction processor responsible for a meaningful percentage of your ATM/Debit Card transactions. To extend your argument and suggest that as a result of my tenure on those Boards that my boss was influential in manipulating transaction prices in a manner contrary to fundamental economic dynamics is laughable, at best. You've been reading way too many fiction books..... Don't drive gas guzzlers and fill up at the lowest priced provider rremains good advice. Terry[/b]
MCG everything you post points to a belief that the price of gas is manipulated in this country by the Oil companies and is not the result of competiton/open markets. You are seeing boogey men everywhere, Condi Rice, come on I can get why the public might be suspicous of Cheney and Bush given their connections in the past, but Condi? If we have a change in the control of congress and a Democrat in the White House, it will be interesting to see if and how fast gas prices will come down from where they are now.
I realize there's too many of you on the far right side of the fence for me to get the last word on this. Let's just say Terry I'm willing to see if the other guys can get those gas prices to go south.
If the democrats can't make hey out of the price of gas and the Iraq war in the midterms...they are toast. I would have included "corruption" but the Jefferson scandal has sort of balenced the Duke Cunningham scandal.
Whoa, my good friend Terry. You don't think that manipulation on some level plays a part in the price at the pump? Pssst, come over here. I have this gen-ooo-ine Rolex watch I'll sell you for $100.
Sid, These guys will defend Big Oil to the hilt because I think that deep down they know there's a special affinity between those fleecers and their chosen group presently in office.
For sure.....it's called OPEC. OPEC regularly sets/manipulates production quotas to target a price range for their crude. OPEC is responsible for 50% of world production and 80% of total reserves. In that they control 1/2 the worlds supply, they have by far the most meaningful single impact on the price of crude. By comparison, the US provides 8% of supply and less than 2% of world reserves. Those numbers alone should suggest that the notion that any US administration can manipulate prices in a manner inconsistent with worldwide market dynamics is patently absurd. Crude Oil is the world's most actively traded commodity....every day, commitments to buy/sell hundreds of millions of barrels of oil totaling tens of billions of dollars change hands between deep pocketed investors, speculators, oil merchants, trading firms, etc. Yesterday for example, on the NYMEX, contracts totaling almost $15 Billion to deliver or accept delivery of crude changed hands - yesterday alone. I can assure you from personal experience, those investors don't give a flying f$$k who is in office. If crude is trading at artificially high prices that cannot be sustained overtime by market fundamentals, those boys would be taking advantage of it to the tune of 100's of billions of dollars with the obvious impact on prices. For example, MCG sugggests that under a different administration, the price of oil will "go south". If I were MCG and had such strong convictions, I could enter into contracts sitting right here at my computer wherein I could sell short today commitments to deliver crude in February '09, or '10, or 11 thereby taking advantage of the artificially high current prices. Once a new administration takes office, prices will plummet or so I believe, I can then cover my obligations for crude by purchasing them at much lower prices....and make a bundle. If there were a material probability of such an occurrence, 100's of billions of dollars of crude contracts would be sold, futures prices would plummet as a result. Guess what????? The trend in crude futures don't indicate such a belief.....brilliant traders, with deep pockets and a material greed gene, DO NOT ignore an opportunity to make so much money.....btw, the above also holds true for refined product, i.e., a gallon of unleaded. For sure, at some stage in the food chain, there are efforts to make an extra penny or so....that's natural. But to suggest that there is a world wide conspiracy and collusion with the Bush administration at its head with the ability to influence crude prices in a manner inconsistent with market dynamics is, imho, naive and patently absurd. If there is some empirical evidence to the contrary, I look forward to continuing the debate. Ohterwise, it's just uninformed conspiracy theory fiction...... Terry
Good economical analysis BT and informative. With regard to collusion I don't suggest it overtly. What I suggest is that the head tends to turn the other way when maybe a little more pressure and scrutiny could make Big Oil decision makers a little more sensitive to the American public in general rather than seeming to be concerned only with the record megabillions being added to the bottom line. For example, rather than exert any pressure regarding mergers between Big Oil companies and possible resultant price fixing, Cheney's Energy Task Force early in Bush's tenure only served to further Big Oil interests with subsidies. To me it's like a Michigan alum asking the President of the Neighborhood Club, a Notre Dame graduate, to moderate and come to a fair decision in a dispute with his neighbor who also is a ND graduate. My money would be on the ND graduate in that dispute.