I’m sure he will put his best me on the case.

How about repealing the federal gasoline tax and the states doing the same? At least in the short term.

You KNOW he’s doing this due to the new record lows at the poll. I hope the public will see through this.

Nick thats the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I hope you own a 4wd truck when our roads turn to crap. If the Oil companies are price gouging they should be prosecuted, but high gas prices aren’t all bad. Its finally forcing us to find alternatives and consverve, which we should have done along time ago.

The whole things is just smoke and mirrors. Like Shut Up said, its just because of record lows at the polls. Bush’s previous actions should let us know what he will actually do about it. Subsidies and tax breaks for big oil, so that they can make record profits and artificially raise prices.

There must still be some wool left at the White House to try to pull over the public’s eyes. I guess Bush decided the trusty smoke and mirrors have been getting too much of a workout lately…

Yeap, people weren’t complaining when their houses increased in value, or when their tech stocks soared… well, Exxon is not going to throw a fist about higher gas prices. I just ride my motorcycle some days and my Bimmer the others… they’re both good on gas.

If I need a people hauler, take out the Matrix, 30 miles to the gallon on the highway (although I do closer to 28) and 0-60 in the mid-7 secs (it’s an XRS with that sweet Celica GT-S engine found in the Lotus cars).

f*in liberals… you call for congressional oversight and a committee to look into the price gouging (aka: price increases 17%, profits increase 17%), but as soon as OUR President does the same he is trying to pull the woll over the publics eyes?

you all are truly retarded. It must absolutely SUCK to live life being so fully blinded by hatred with almost every thought that crosses your head.

Remember, anger will only cloud judgement. An open mind and objective use of research and logic will take you a lot farther…

Mike: This ex-drunk, business failure may be YOUR president but I reserve the right to deny he is MY president – the same way you Brown Shirts denied Clinton. ..who I do not hold In high regard…but this dummy has gotten 20,000 of us (who actually serve..) killed and wounded in folly – and let the actual bad guy escape out the back door. Idiot.

j i m

Like I said Jim… blinded by hatred.

in other news, Hitler said he’d commence an investigation on whether or not Jews were responsible for building death camps in Poland.

Jim in LA… Not following you here.

Are you saying that Bush is equal to Hitler?
Are you saying that Oil companies are Jewish?
Are you saying that a congressional investigation of price gouging will lead to the genocide of millions of innocent people?

Are you anti-christian, antisemetic?

your comment really makes absolutely no sense.

mike – better than being blinded by blind faith. i’m not a democrat or even a liberal for that matter, but if you actually think GW is doing anything other than an absolutely atrocious job you’ve drunk way too much elephant juice.

Mike –

“Remember, anger will only cloud judgement. An open mind and objective use of research and logic will take you a lot farther”

So does an open and unclouded mind include things like “f*in liberals” and “you all are truly retarded”?

Depends on the person, really.

Oh, and SR, Exxon recently posted the highest quaterly profits of any company ever, FYI.

Granted, it is from 2005, but:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/28/AR2005072802085.html

Nick says he owns a BMW 545i, which has a 4.5-liter V8 engine, and costs over $50K, yet he can’t seem or is unwilling to pay for higher gas prices. Nick is either in over his head buying a car he can’t afford, or really cheap.

Jon.

Adam: What’s your point? I heard about their profits and I’m happy for Exxon. Why? They’re a successful business that is making money. Capitalism at work. They’re making all that money because they’re in the business of providing a commodity that is in great demand. What’s so wrong with that?

Once again, oil companies do NOT set the price of oil. It’s determined by little twits in commodities exchanges around the world, London mainly, who yell and shout and speculate at what the price should be. When there’s instability around the world such as when a goddamn lunatic controls OPEC’s #2 producer of oil (Iran), or Nigeria has a revolution, or Venezula’s dictator takes a ****, or a hurricane threatens supply, these twits raise the price in the exchange. Exxon keeps on doing what they’re doing, but they make more money doing it.

If you’re smart, you should go buy stock in Exxon. If you would have done that 10 years ago, the money you would have made would more than make up for the increase in the price of a gallon of gas…

SR, the oil companies got a tax break thanks to President Bush and posted record profits. Now, who’s gouging whom?

The oil companies set prices at the pump; profits made at the refinery are made by the oil companies, that’s 2/3 of oil production controlled by the oil companies. Now, please tell me, who sets the prices at the pump, which YOU purchase your gas from? Is it the guys on the trading room floor? Do they decide how much you pay at the pump? No. They decide price per barrel.

Jon.

mike- jim in L.A.’s comment is called sarcasm. look it up. seriously, if the average american with a computer can found out how the prices of gas are determined (i learned a lot from SR), why does the president need to launch an “official investigation”? i’ll go along with the low-ratings-in-the-polls-so-i-better-do-something comment. 2 more years…

Many big businesses get tax breaks – it encourages their growth and expansion. So what if oil companies got them? Taxing them more will NOT lower the price you pay at the pump, period. Taxing them less will free up their money to seek out new oil reserves, make infrastructure improvements, etc. In the long run that helps us.

The price at the pump is ultimately determined by, like pretty much everything else in the world, supply and demand. First off, figure in the cost of the oil the gas came from (determined by traders). Add on the cost of refining, especially for all the different blends across the country, add the taxes (.50-.70 cents per gallon), and then you eventualy get the price we pay at the pump. Oil companies make something like .06 cents per gallon in profit.

Exactly WHO sets the price? I dunno, I’m not in the business, but the price gets trickled down, ultimately, from the price of oil.

The price of the crude oil is only 1/3 of he price you pay at the pump, 2/3 of the rest of the price is set by / goes through the hands of the oil companies.

The oil companies did not need tax breaks; that’s the whole point! A massive monopoly-like industry (only 4 major players) doesn’t need help from the government to encourage them to grow. I can’t believe you seriously you into the BS that what encourages them to grow is tax breaks…as if the profit (and record profit at that) wasn’t the true motivation!

No one said that taxing the oil companies would lower the price at the pump. In fact, only Nick decidedly mentioned that prices should be lowered at the pump by stopping the tax on gas. Oil taxes are too low. They should tax $0.30 of oil extra and split that money evenly to help pay the national debt (pointless multi-billion dollar wars have to paid sometime; thank you Mr. Bush!) and to look for new ways of propelling cars using alternative energy sources; and not because of the inane price of gas (who gives a crap what the monetary cost is when there are bigger things at stake?), but because of the impact to the environment.

Jon.

Why are we even blaiming the big oil companies and the retailers. The brokers who buy and sell the oil as a commodity are the ones driving the price up. The oil companies set a price and the brokers drive it up, not the oil companies. There are too many middle men.

If you replace the word ‘oil’ with food, would you still argue the same? Don’t tell me it’s different, that only shows you can’t counter argue.

Nice post SR.
A fish stinks from the head, down.
In this case, the stink starts in DC for the reasons you note.

Yeah, a lot HAS gone in on the world lately, but who made all that go on? Yep, you got it W…. His BS folly in Iraq is directly responsible for the oil price escalation. Had he focused on the ball, and actually put out underground operations to find Osama, the world and the Middle East would be more stable right now. But NO. Bush had to go and “Liberate Iraq” from Saddam. Which, has only created MORE chaos within Iraq, and instability in the oil prices. At least with Saddam the beast had a head you could control. Now, you have countless splinter groups and campaigns reigning terror in Iraq, US troops getting killed, and oil at $75+ a barrel. Anyone who did not see this coming a mile away is not very perceptive. By the way, this is why most of those liberal “wussies” were against this Iraq campaign. Because it was based on lies to begin with, and everyone knew what it could cause. Look at our situation now. This is why the American people are upset with Bush’s left field decision to topple Saddam and the “alleged WMD (which were nevere found)” We had an economic surplus, a stable middle east, and stable energy prices. Yes, we were headed into a recession, but we were bolstered with money. Now, we have spent $368 Billion dollars on a campaign that has further destabalized the world, spiked energy costs, and made us weak with respect to South Korean aggression and Iranian threats. And guess what, Osama Bin Laden STILL runs free! Great job W. He deserves what he gets. By the way, do you know how much progress could be made with $368 billion in alternative energy research?

“By the way, do you know how much progress could be made with $368 billion in alternative energy research?”
You fail to rember that we live in the US.
That money would just get squandered, likely building stadiums for sports teams. And perhaps a few more bridges to nowhere.

Honestly, some of the things you people are saying are absolutely ridiculous! “…this is all Bush’s fault, giving those oil companies tax breaks!” NO, stop and think about it. Oil companies do not get the kind of tax break that would lead to a multibillion dollar profit and if you have any facts stating otherwise I would love to see them! I also agree with Mike, if OUR President tries to do anything about this “its a result of polls numbers.” Personally I don’t see the outrage. For the average driver a 50 cent increase in gas is going to cost you around $10 more a week, most people spend that at Starbucks or whatever. Also, the rise in gas will be better for us in the long run and push us towards more sustainable energy sources.

my last statement should read:

sadly, the world isn’t as “free marketâ€? as he’d like to believe; if that were the case, our government (no matter who runs it) would NOT be set up to favor certain industries while trying to impede the progress of others. (as it currently is – including massive tax policy supports for oil, many of which are less than 5 years old – and those are the ones we know about).

sorry, i should have proofread better.

“bottom line: we need to wean ourselves off the global fuel market and become more self-sufficient.”

And it would help if DC would do what I posted above: What they COULD do in DC is ease up on stupid drilling restrictions, get rid of the hundreds of required blends, encourage new refineries and pipelines to be built, etc. DC ultimately holds the keys to lower prices, NOT the oil the companies.

Re: “the goal to run up oil prices has been in place since 2000.” BS. If Gore would have been elected, 9/11 still would have happened. We probably would have gone into A’Stan, but definitely not Iraq. So Saddam would be in power and be able cause instability with his actions. And Iran, Venezula, and Nigeria would STILL be where they are today, also causing instability. Katrina would have happened, despite Gore huffing and puffing to stop “global warming.” Long story short, the price of oil would have gone up, regardless of who was in office.

Regarding the anonymous poster at #31, the only thing I feel like responding to is his “Osama runs free” ****. Funny, but I would guess that the soldiers and Marines that have been Afghanistan would not take kindly to your comments. Do you think they HAVEN’T been looking for him? Do you think that there HAVEN’T been special forces hunting around in the mountains for him? This notion that we “let him go,” put forth by liberals is insane. Even in 2003, troop levels in Afghanistan have never been lowered. It’s just an easy cheap shot at Bush that he hasn’t been killed by people who can’t make a cogent argument otherwise.

Price fixing is wrong regardless of who does it. People DO complain about how much Microsoft charges. Saying oil companies making a profit is ‘capitalism at work’ is wrong. If oil companies or Microsoft are price-fixing, that is a monopoly, the opposite of capitalism. You are un-american if you support making money in this way.

And this is a forum, we dont “agree to disagree” here.

If everyone thinks that everything is going up in price, take a look at some of the other commodities out there, ie. corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, and other grains. These prices haven’t gone up with the rest of the economy at all, in fact the prices are what they were back in the 60’s. These are commonly traded commodities as well, just like oil. But no one seems to be in a hurry to push their prices up in a similar fashion to oil.

There is something definitly messed up with the system. Should gas be as high as it is? Probably. But should it triple in price in such a short period of time? Definitely not.

SR. You have the sound of an inteligent person, it’s hard your thought of free enterprise in oil could be that delusional. Make no mistake there are people(GW&family), who are making big money as we speak.

Duncan. very nice comment but the alternative would probably been just as bad.

Mike. pull your head from you back side. truely… anger clouds judgement? People are being raped at the pump and you expect tolerance. I don’t think so sir. A Real “christan” would not be spending American lives in a war we really didn’t have to fight to begin with.

Overall I hear see alot of comments on statistics and oil profits per barrel and such. Take it from me..A commodities experienced former Trade Center Emplyee, the government has the power to fix this and make it right. But whare’s the money in that?