What a friggin’ joke these guys are:
“On April Fool’s Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mich., as his committee began hearing from the oil company executives.
Idiot.
Lawmakers were looking for answers to the soaring fuel costs a day after the Energy Department said the national average price of gasoline reached a record $3.29 cents a gallon and global oil prices remained above $100 a barrel although supplies of both gasoline and oil seemed to be adequate.
The answers lie in the fact that lawmakers have placed too high of a hurdle on refiners and have stopped exploration in the U.S. In favor of growing freaking corn.
Idiots.
Filed Under Front Page ·
Comments
99 Responses to “Pompous Lawmakers Grill Oil Executives”Search
Our Sponsors
Poll
Loading ...LST Book Club
-
Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy
by Natan Sharansky -
Fear No Evil
by Natan Sharansky -
The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror
by Anatoly Shcharansky -
The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul
by Yoram Hazony -
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
by David Brooks -
Snobbery: The American Version
by Joseph Epstein -
A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles
by Thomas Sowell
Bigjolly
Its a joke alright but so is blaming the lawmakers.
The falling dollar couldn’t have anything to do with it either.
This is what happens when you have people “regulating” industries of which they have no knowledge. How many in our congress have NO, zero, zip, nada experience in the private sector? How many of these “leaders” have ever had to meet a payroll with the profit from the goods or services they sell? IMHO, a seat in congress or senate should have running a sucessful business in the private sector as a prerequisite.
If “big government” wanted to bring down the price of gasoline, why didn’t they stop the federal taxes on gas instead of wasting money mailing out letters about getting a tax rebate, processing for payments those rebates and then actually giving us a rebate. I do believe government regulation and intervention has screwed up our gas prices.
Where are the executives of Archer Daniels Midland? why aren’t they being grilled too?
BigJ gets it. Lawmakers get it too, they just have more to gain from maintaining the ethanol/man-made global warming farce.
Everyone, especially the Democratic Congressman, talks about the windfall profits that Big Oil makes on this at the expense of regular Americans. What about the fact that the government makes more money off of a gallon of gas than the oil company does? What about the windfall profits of the government on gas? Do they deserve to make that much money on gas?
Ror makes a good point too. “Big Oil” seems to have become a commonly accepted bit of vernacular.
Q. How long until the term “Big Corn” starts getting used by opinion shapers?
A. When it benefits them sufficiently.
Isn’t Archer Daniels “Big Corn”??
Don’t forget the role of market speculation in inflating the price. If we restricted purchases of oil and gasoline contracts on the commodities market to only those who have the ability to refine and/or distribute them, we would see an almost immediate drop of about $30 per barrel in the price of oil.
#7
Yet we still cant afford to build highways.
This is all about gouging.
What was Exxons profit margin 10 years ago?
What is Exxons profit margin today?
I have no answers to the fix.
In 2007 Exxon/Mobil paid taxes at the rate of 41% of earned income or $30B.
Big oil is like big tobacco for the dems someone to tax and vilify.
Reducing taxes on gas would lower the price then dems couldn’t vilify BigOil.
Let us chant now:
Screw the caribou! Drill in ANWR!
Screw the caribou! Drill in ANWR!
At least some of it rhymes.
On, and one more thing, guess who makes more on gasoline? Exxon? No. Chevron? No.
The answer: THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!
Oh, didn’t see #7. The government makes what, 18.4 cents a gallon, right? Exxon and Chevron etc. make maybe half that.
#12
Cough up the profit margins for 1997 and 2007.
Thanks
Dear ole’ Rep. Maawkeey (Mass. folks leave r’s out where they occur and put them in where they aren’t, you know)is a transparent socialist. Nobody in the MSM, of course, or even the more conservative Fox News Channel that I’ve seen have bothered to mention how much in taxes the oil companies pay vs income. Hey gang, it’s in the billions with a B (courtesy Rush today).
And Bill #10 is right about making oil and gas commodities purchases contingent upon the buyer having to take physical custody of the product. The speculators would flee elsewhere, and the price of oil would drop.
Apparently it is also necessary to pound into the empty heads of consumers that we are sitting atop tremendous reserves but can’t get to them because of the environuts whining. Many of these same folks likely could be persuaded to believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows and goes directly from udder to carton to store. Had to throw that one in being from Wisconsin, as we frequently convinced kids from eastern states coming to UW in Madison that was how it worked. Hee hee.
My cousin, who is serving in Iraq, just sent out an e-mail to my aunt requesting Bible verses to help his moral and motivation, anyone have any suggestions?
dang, wrong thread.
The thing is…the gvt has royalties that they take as well beyond just the income tax on the oil companies as well as “user” tax on consumers. The roylaty rates are different in various areas, but range around 15% of production. All of that production comes without any cost (expense or capital for lifting it)…oh and at the $100/bbl rate. Let me tell you, the goverment coffers are overflowing with “windfall” profits more than the oil companies, but not a word from them about that.
Daniel, you’re sounding more and more anti-capitalist. What’s up with that?
#15 Surely you can’t be serious. Cough up the profit margins? American corporations aren’t allowed to make a profit? No one was crying for these guys when oil was at $20.
Okay.
1997: Exxon had earnings of $8.5 billion on revenues of $137.2 billion. That’s a profit margin of 6.2 percent.
2007: ExxonMobil had earnings of $40.6 billion on revenues of $404.6 billion. That’s a profit of right at 10 percent.
Let’s look at some other prominent companies and their profit margins:
Google: 25 percent
AT&T: 10.3 percent
General Electric: 13.8 percent
McDonald’s: 22 percent
We’re getting gouged! No blood for cheeseburgers!
Anti capitalist?
I thought ya’ll could just pull these stats from your butts.
I never said the gov should get involved. I did say we are being gouged and gouged but good.
Do any of ya’ll know what the oil companies profits were last year and in 1997?
Thanks
#21
I am pretty sure the profits were in the $40 billion range if I heard correctly yesterday.
Thanks Matt. Thats what I was looking for.
Youre the best.
#21 He is serious, and don’t call him Shirley.
How about using less oil?
The return of gadboy
Let’s see - the government takes a tax on each and every gallon of gas you buy; they tax the income of the oil companies; they tax the income of the oil company workers (which also reduces the amount of welfare paid out to unemployed people); they tax the property of the oil company (funiture,fixtures,buildings, etc.). So DJ do you really think that the oil companies are not paying enough! I don’t like the high priced gasoline any more than anyone else and I don’t even benefit directly by working in the oil industry, however, the reason we have such high prices is not to be blamed on the oil companies. How about we get some “spoils of war” from Iraq or how about having fewer types of gasoline so that they refineries don’t have to retool constantly. In 2007 the profit for ExxonMobile was 10%. http://www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2008/MediaMyth/Crude_Coverage/CrudeCompany.asp
And since Exxon and Mobil were merged in 1999, it would be hard to make a comparison from then to now. However 10% profit margin is not an unrealistic figure. The government anticipates 10-13% of profit built in to products that the buy (at least the DoD does) and it is expected to be higher the more risk a contractor takes.
Meet the evil face of Big Burger.
OK Gaddy. You go first. We’ll be right behind you.
Yeah, I’m already doing my part gaddy. I live 1/2 mile from work and drive less than 8000 miles/year. Can ya beat that?
Hamous - I carpool which saves some but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I live 35 miles from the office. My husband works 75 miles and carpools 3 days per week. It is harder for police to carpool what with shifts, etc. However, I would be willing to do my part and “retire” now, and take government incentives to stay home so as not to use oil.
THe answer to the lawmakers is… ‘YOU SENATOR ARE RESPONSIBLE BECAUSE YOU LOT SPENT TOO MUCH BORROWED MONEY AND LOWERED THE DOLLAR’. Maybe these idiots will give the Oil business to the FED as well.
Like most other things, all it needs is a good leaving alone. There is no energy problem that can’t be solved by leaving it alone. I’m still pretty pissed though that I had to stop smoking in order to be able to afford to fill up my Suburban. Bastards.
dcgirl
So DJ do you really think that the oil companies are not paying enough?
Exxon pays nothing in taxes. Anything they pay on paper comes out of whos pocket? OURS!
The people pay all the taxes! The average Joe is being stung to death. We have been over the imbedded taxation issue before but since you may not have been around all the corps pass on the taxes via the price of the product to who? US!
I simply said and am correct that we are being gouged. The price of oil has quadrupled in roughly 3.5 years.
I drive a lot of miles for work. It is killing me. I have started passing this on to the customers. There will come a point when they will start dropping my service. I am pretty sure it has already started but that would be pure speculation at this time.
Streaming my consciousness:
Let’s face it: there are a few pompous oil executives, too.
But, no matter who is at fault, if this problem continues to get worse, there may very well be more government meddling, especially in an election year. Though oil companies pay taxes, they also get tax incentives. If those are taken away, as Congress is threatening to do, then costs are likely to go even higher as a result (since I doubt that the companies will pass the cost along to their shareholders).
Bush has said he will veto rollback of tax breaks. But if HillObama is elected, there will be no impediment to pillaging oil company coffers, perhaps even with a new windfall profits tax. An all-Democrat congress and White House would mean more control, higher taxes and lower profits.
Thus, it seems to me to be poor politics for oil company executives to go to Congress and say, “We know this hurts the poor and those on fixed incomes, but tough - our profits are in line with others.” Those may be the truest words ever spoken, but they are not likely to win many converts. In the past, when Congress has organized these dog and pony shows, things seemed to subsequently calm down (naturally cyclical, I presume) and they went on to the new flavor of the week issue. But predictions now are that things are only going to get worse - I have read some “analysts” who virtually gurantee $200 a barrel oil.
I know even solid Republicans who are almost ready to concede that more government intervenion is almost inevitable if things don’t stabilize. We are told there is plenty of supply even as prices skyrocket and “big oil” profits explode. There is a knee jerk reaction, not sober analysis, when that happens. When tens of millions really start clamoring for action, how do you expect a weaselly politician to react?
And, no, we do not need to get used to the high fuel prices of Europe. For one thing, we can’t drive across our entire country in a few hours. Further, folks like the independent truckers are feeling the pinch, organizing their own action. Running thousands of them out of business due to exhorbitant fuel costs is both a tragedy and a scandal. You think the grounding of planes after 9-11 brought a lot of commerce to a halt? That will seem like boom time if trucks stop rolling across the country.
And, of course, this problem doesn’t just mean high costs at the pump. Production and transportation costs mean more for tomatoes, electricity and kleenex.
I just don’t see this as a good situation overall.
I can’t provide good answers, though I know $4 per gallon gasoline is not one of them. Repealing gas taxes would be nice, but that wouldn’t help in the long run - we all know governemnt would find a way back into our pockets to make up for the lost revenue. Certainly alternate enegry is one solution, but we have sat on our asses for 30 years with very little practical progress. (Real development of non-oil energy sources is probably the ultimate solution, but I think we will have many painful years while getting there, so we best step it up.) Perhaps it will take an “energy depression” to get serious about it.
I recall that, even as a teenager, when oil was under $20 a barrel, some of the “religious fanatics” were predicting $100 a barrel, a faltering economy, “oil riots” and “oil wars.” We all laughed because it was very funny.
Very funny. That $110 oil is a real rib tickler, ain’t it?
All interesting points Rick. The one thing I would suggest is that seeking alternative sources of energy may be a case of heading off into the weeds. I’d like to see us seek alternative methods of producing the same energy we already use, like this one:
http://www.thermaldepolymerization.org/
Biodiesel ain’t bad either.
dcgirl - Yup, I understand its not easy for some folks. I was just pointing out to gaddy that the leadership in his party talk a good game but its always up to the masses to bite the bullet. Al Gore still lives in a 10,000 sq. ft. mansion. John Kerry and Teddy “Run, Fatboy, Run” Kennedy are still against wind farms off the coast of their multi-million dollar “summer cottages”.
#31 - Hey good conservation there bubba but I gotcha beat!
My commute is about 60 feet (on my feet that is) from the back of the house to Katfish Central here - on average I’d say we fill up the crown-vic-copmobile OH……..every 6 weeks or so……….mebbe even as long as 2 months.
Now ‘Gracie’ does get fed more often AND she gets the good stuff - but unless we are on a road trip likely only 10 gallons or so per week MAX……
#37 - Yes but “Big Oil” is suppressing the technology so they can continue to reap their obscene profits just like they did with Thomas Edison’s perpetual motion machine.
#40,
Ah… yes.
/slaps self on head
Please delete my link in #37 before “they” see it and decide to cut my brake lines before I leave for home this evening. Or worse.
Let’s talk about alternatives. We rely too much on solar power, and it will not be sufficient to supply our future needs. We need to move to Terrestrial power.
Why do I say solar? Oil, gas, wind, and yes, even direct solar power come from the sun in one way or another.
Terrestrial power is basically nuclear and water power.
Water power is, for the most part, tapped out in this country, no pun intended.
Nuclear is, as Howard Hughes said, “The wave of the Future.”(or was it Leonardo DiCrapio)
I read a few very alarming statistics just a few weeks ago. The Three Mile Island “disaster” emitted into the air about the same amount of radiation as a chest xray. More radiation fell on Harrisburg PA from Chernobyl than Three Mile Island. Nuclear waste is not a big issue as long as it is treated properly. I can’t explain the physics of it, but as it was explained to me, it is not the huge ecological disaster we once thought it was. Europe will soon be 50% nuclear.
I don’t know which is older, the youngest nuclear reactor or the youngest oil refinery in America.
Yeah, I know this won’t lower the price of gas this week or next year even, but I think that this is the way to go to forestall a real oil shortage, if not visited upon us, then on our kids or their kids. I tend to maintain a “let the next generation take care of their own problems, but I think we can help a bit here and there.
Do the combines used to harvest the corn operate on alternative fuels?
Too late, Dude. Take the bus tonight. You won’t be driving a sabotaged car and with teh safety in numbers you stand a better chance of getting home un-assassinated.
There are applications for around 30 new US nuclear power plants in the works. Count on the Dems to kill them all.
Forgot the link:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Expected_New_Nuclear_Power_Plant_Applications_in_the_U.S.
Actually, nuclear is solar power too. It relies on heavy elements which were the ashes of a supernova that occurred prior to the formation of the solar system. No element heavier than iron on the periodic table could have been created by the big bang. They all had to be made in the cores of suns.
Nuclear waste can be re-processed and reused in nuclear reactors. currently we only get about 5% of the power available out of nuclear fuel due to the buildup of fission products that absorb neutrons halting the reaction. If the fuel is reprocessed, it is possible to get as much as 95% of the energy out of it. The residue is made up of radioactive elements that are relatively short-lived and can be sequestered in geologic formations for the time it takes for them to break down using current sequestration technology.
France gets about 80% of it’s electricity from nuclear power.
but electricity generation is not where most of the oil and gas are used, that is for the most part coal (with a small amount coming from natural gas.).
DJ - where are you coming up with this stuff?
You can say that about ANY merchandiser - Let’s see …. Budweiser doesn’t pay any taxes, the beer drinkers do; Microsoft doesn’t pay any taxes, the software users do. You need to get a grip. Bottled water, the stuff that bottlers get out of the tap water (that tax payers pay to clean) fill up little plastic bottles and charge over a $1 for it. Very little processing charges. And they don’t have to go overseas to get much of it, risking having their equipment nationalized like Chavez recently did.
Just looking at the Harris County Appraisal District and searching for “Exxon” came back with 1,406 hits. That means that over 1,406 different records, many with at least 10 different taxing districts taking a piece of the pie. So, yes, they do pay taxes. Try reading my post again after calming down and post some rational response.
Woe is me:
DJIA 12,654.36 +391.47
Prolly all because of ExxonMobil profits.
dcgirl, you hit upon a basic truth. Business do NOT pay taxes. Consumers pay all taxes because businesses pass those costs along to consumers in the form of higher taxes.
So a tax on ANY business gets passed down the line. The suppliers to Exxon pass their taxes on to Exxon who include them in the prices they charge customers along with their taxes. It’s why ANY tax on business ultimately is paid on the retail end in the form of higher costs at the cash register. It’s inescapable because the next result of all business eventually is funneled down to retail. All businesses eventually support the retail sector. That includeds business that are selling to governments because those businesses too build their tax costs into what they sell the government, so the government comes back and taxes you to recover it.
Just a never ending cycle. Any tax or fee is going to hit the consumer in the pocketbook/wallet at some place.
#48
We pay their taxes. It is turned over in the cost of the goods. I am surpirsed you dont understand that.
What did you not see in my post? I totally understand that, but why are you only picking on the oil industry? In your own business you pass on the taxes you pay to your customers. Should we string you up for doing it too?
Kittykat sitters pay taxes?
Bigs there is one loophole.. Foreign companies.
The only thing we get out of that deal is whatever tariff that is placed on the goods oh and a cheap product.
By buying foreign we kick virtually nothing back into our system.
dcgirl
It is you that needs to go re-read.
I dont care who is doing the gouging. I can beetch all day. I dont like it especially on a product we NEED to survive aka make a living.
I think Rick said it best so read his #36.
Not this kitty cat sitter.
Why don’t these stupid lawmakers in washington take off the .40 cent per gallon gas tax, Hmmmm???
Plus anyone with any brains knows that a business has to add all of thier costs onto the price of the product they are selling, so all taxes placed on a business’ product (such as gasoline) has to be passed onto the consumer…
So lets get the politian’s hands out of the oil business and their tax at the pump, so we all can be paying less than $1.50 per gallon. BTW; it would make the prices of almost everything we buy go down in price, because of lower shipping costs…
The oil companies make about .06 cents per gallon profit, so who’s making the cost of gas so high? Yes it’s the government who’s killing us in taxes on products…
Liberalism Bad, Conservatism Good…
I think we need to focus on the excessively high profits that Big Lawn is making. The guy that does my yard told me he might have to go from $25 to $35. That’s a 40% increase!
GOUGING!!!
Go back to sleep!!!
Just go shopping (after you wake up)!!!
Then bend over.
DJ - there is no way that you can say that 10% profit is excessive. NO WAY.
We need to quit paying billions for earmark pork projects and start paying down our national debt. The only thing that will bring the value of the dollar back up substantially is balancing our national budget and beginning to get our debt under control. Until then, you can expect our currency to keep behaving like that of a 3rd world country.
With the value of the dollar so low, and our country so dependent on foreign imports, there is no doubt that within the next 12-18 months we will see raging inflation rear its ugly head at levels we haven’t seen since the Carter years unless the fed reverses course and raises interest rates dramatically. Every product that we import will be more expensive as long as the dollar stays weak. With millions of mortgages and credit card accounts hanging by a string and tied to the prime rate, any increase in rates will increase the problems in the credit markets.
About the only thing keeping the dollar and stable as it has been over the past few years has been its use as the standard currency for OPEC. If OPEC follows through on its idea to move away from the dollar as its currency of choice like they talked about earlier this year, it will be a disaster for the value of the dollar and for our economy. I am inclined to accept alot of pain right now if we have a government that is willing to let us take some harsh medicine for our past sins instead of trying to find a non-existant easy way out of the mess they have put us in. All the easy paths right now just lead to bigger messes a few years down the road…
And BTW - I don’t like paying the gas bill either (or the other bills that it effects). I just know that there is not gouging going on by the oil companies. Now, the government, YES. OPEC - YES.
Biodiesel is a good source, i happen to work for a biodiesel company so take this with a grain of salt, but biodiesel right now in free market costs close to 3.00. This is because oil is not free we just bought a few million gallons of soy oil, and paid about $.30 per gallon, about 1.6 gal=1 gallon fuel, about 1.00 per gallon(final product) for ethanol and KOH, plus research, employees, profit. just thought i would throw that out there.
the government makes more per gallon than Exxon does.
Why don’t those f&*kwits in Congress go after the real problems- Chavez, enviro nazis, etc.
oh.. yeah… they’re fellow travellers.
#63,
What does the KOH (potassium hydroxide?) do in the biodiesel process?
(I don’t know much about the process obviously)
Anybody have a link to a recent (past couple of weeks) new story that the whole grow-corn-for-ethanol thing creates more “greenhouse gas” per unit energy produced than oil products?
#65 Sounds like a saponification step.
The Dem’s won’t do anything that really helps anyone but themselves…
The higher gas costs the more it keeps poor people poor, which is right where the Dem’s have always wanted them to be. The more poor and dependant the Dem’s can make people the more they get in votes, (does not make any sense but the poor keep voting for them)…
Higher taxes on gas mean higher prices for all of us and it hurts the poor people more than anyone else. The Dem Law makers know this and this is why they stand in the way of anything that will lower the need for gasoline, like nuclear, wind, solar and especially drilling in our own country. It really hurts poor people even further because higher taxes on gas means the price of everything else is higher, like food, clothes, and anything that needs to be transported.
If the Dem’s really cared they would not tax Gas or the oil companies and we would be drilling in the US and right off the coast of Florida and California. But they have proven time after time that they say one thing and do the most damaging thing to the citizens of this country…
#65
Quick and Dirty on Biodiesel(not a tutorial)
1. obtain natuaral oil(cottonseed, chicken fat ect)
2. heat up
3. add ethanol and koh
4. let cool
5. settles into biodiesel and glycerin
6. tap off glycerin
#69,
Cool! Thanks.
no prob
Oh and I keep hearing in the news the cost of food is going up because the cost of corn is going up so high because it’s being used to make ethanol…
We are paying tax money for all of this too. Anyone know how much taxes go to subsidizing ethanol and then how much they tax ethanol at the pump???
No but I know there are protests to the south due to the cost of tacos.
DanielJames you are ignorant. The petroleum industry is the most taxed industry in the world. Every service and product is taxes in this industry. Even the rightful mineral owners (called royalty owners) are taxed for producing and selling their own property. The government owns none of it and never, ever did. Our industry was nearly driven to extinction in the early eighties. We lost more knowledge and talent then than we shall ever have again. I saw more than half of my companies clients die a sorry business death and so many REAL professionals lost their careers. Nobody cared the product was too cheap. We spent fruitless hours warning of the outcome of the ‘too cheap’ energy. Those ignorant prostitutes in D.C. who call themselves civil servants cannot hear people who have true knowledge of these condition unless these ‘authorities’ are funded by themselves. That produces every bit a slanted opinion as any industry funded study ever could. The difference is. the industry knows what it is talking about. D.C. only knows showmanship. Now we pay the piper. Now we pay the price and only Washington is to blame. We do not set the price for our own product and never have. We are under no obligation to develop new ways to produce energy. We are in the oil and gas business not the wind or solar or tidal energy business. We work for a profit not for public service or the pleasure of high blood pressure caused by the vulgar, uneducated and ignorant political whores who call themselves civil servants. One day soon…it will change. The 3rd American Revolution shall once more topple the despots. This time they are populist despots. If everyone is in ‘consensus’ you can bet the consensus is misguided. I can rant on forever about this. I need to go hit something…
Dude
Big Lawn is one greedy industry.
I had to raise my rates a whopping $1 per visit.
dcgirl
Most people here that know me know I blame the gov for everything. I absolutely detest taxation. It is evil and counter productive. Our system used to run on/operate/function via tariffs. It now runs on US.
Odins
Read the above.
17 duhmoose - sorry to be so long in responding, I wanted to find a really good one.
How about:
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
Please pass along to him that so many of us over here love them for what they are doing, and pray for them all the time.
Remember, when lawnmowers are outlawed, only outlaws will have lawnmowers.
When those idiot politicians haul Planned Parenthood in for the profit they make, then I will pay attention.
I’m waiting for DJ to say that they’ll get his lawnmower then they pry his cold dead hands from the federally mandated, automatic throttle cut off release lever.
Then WHY do you want them to increase taxes on “Big Oil”?
#66 - Native American - The cover story of the latest issue of TIME is all about the biofuel scam.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html
#74 Odin, Your comment is something everybody outside the oil & gas industry needs to read. Spouse and I are survivors of the ’80s oil crash as well; he remained employed but at a reduced salary for a while. Many of our friends had a harder time of it. Homes for sale in a glutted market; ours was on the market for 2 years because he had taken a job in Austin just before the crash came. In our case a buyout of the Austin company by a Houston one brought him home after 4 years commuting; fortunately we hadn’t sold the house. Cars lined up along FM 359 in the grocery store parking lot, for sale. Homes in foreclosure
(not as bad here now as then).
A huge number of technical folk left the industry never to return, no desire to take the chance it would happen again. Result is the shortage of experienced technical staff in all areas. Spouse’s cohorts are now all over 50, and they’re the younger ones…. New college grads who have the right background (Master’s and PhD’s) have a lot to learn and will eventually fill the gap, but you can’t teach experience.
So the prophecy born in the debacle of the 80s has come true, and the experienced ones are now figuratively worth their weight in diamonds. Spouse works a 3-day week designing logging tools and working with interpretation programs. The company is hanging onto his leg and hoping he doesn’t want to retire yet. Same goes for his contemporaries who are consultants. And it didn’t have to happen this way, but then hindsight is….
#81 ShinerBlonde:
thanks muchly!
I’ve seen some discussion about using prairie switchgrass to make methanol (pretty sure, but could have been ethanol). Benefit there is the stuff grows like a weed, which it basically is, and uses very little other resources to grow (water, fertilizer, etc.). All in all, it sounds much more promising than basically burning food like they’re trying to do now.
The ‘Rat committee chair showed the direction this was all going to take (Can we say “Inquisition”?) with his opening volley.
#74
OdinsAcolyte
Sounds like you might be someone who can give some insight into this. I am a staunch capitalist and want to be on the side of oil companies but no one explains to me in terms I can understand what causes these fluctuations. The heat that oil company execs take, I do not understand why there are no sophisticated campaigns to educate the public on the problems. It is almost like they are asking for the idiots in DC to intervene.
85
Much like airlines making people wait for 8-10 hrs on the runway and no fix, Washington’s coming to visit, and it won’t be good for you.
ShinerBlonde #81, imagine that. Envirowacko programs having unintended consequences. For 30 years Envirowacko groups blocked the Corps of Engineers from improving levees in New Orleans. More unintended consequences. This is one more reason that we can’t let the Dems control the WH and make ultra liberal judicial appointments. The consequences can be REAL KILLERS.
GoodJobTim, it’s simple supply and demand. We’re not pumping oil, and we’re not refining oil - not to a degree that would force down prices. Oil is a commodity, subject to speculation. A potential war between Colombia and Venezuela, and attack on oil drilling platforms in Saudi Arabia or in Africa, a fire at a gasoline refining plant - or a confluence of all these things can force speculators to drive up the price on the market.
It’s like back in the late 1980s when we had three plants that produce ethylene glycol go down worldwide within a month. The price of antifreeze shot up from $8 a gallon to $50 a gallon within months. The price to refine it didn’t change. The price to make it didn’t change. But the scarcity of it drove it the price through the roof during the winter months that year. My company was making a killing selling it to the airlines to deice their aircraft.
#74 OdinsAcolyte
“We work for a profit not for public service or the pleasure of high blood pressure caused by the vulgar, uneducated and ignorant political whores who call themselves civil servants. One day soon…it will change. The 3rd American Revolution shall once more topple the despots. This time they are populist despots”.
Amen to your words here…
I was sick to my stomach listening to these Idiots in Washington on their delusional high horses scolding these 5 oil companies for having the audacity to make a 10% profit. When did we Americans decide to let the Congress decide how much profit a business is allowed to make? How many other companies make more than 10%? Should they be even more crucified? They sit there chewing out those 5 men like they are little school kids when in-fact they are the ones who are really raping us with all of the taxes they put on every step of the way of production of oil & Gas…
We consumers should be the ones screaming at Congress, since they are the ones making us pay for these no account idiots in Washington breaking our banks…
I’m amazed any company is still operating in the U.S. with all of the government interference - expense to do even do business here. It come to the point where they just have to either go out of business or move to country they can make money in. And then the same ones that are chasing business away from the States are the same ones screaming about them leaving and demonize them for doing so. Now can you see why so many businesses fail in this country? If I were in business I would say Screw You Washington…
#89 MAV
You are right.
Big, I’m not sharp on economics but everyone understands supply and demand. Katrina and Rita shut down a lot of oilfield operations, prices shot up, came back down. Summer is coming, that is predictable but here it comes every year. I hear the talking heads saying what you are`saying but no one from the people running it all.
All the money involved and Chevron/Shell/Exxon ads every five minutes, I don’t get why they don’t do a little education.
One thing we need to do is get back to using corn for food and oil for gasoline.
‘Silent’ famine sweeps globe
#91 GJT, You are so right in that the oil & gas industry has done a pitiful job of educating the public on how things work. The American Petroleum Institute is finally waking up and starting on it. They need a new ad agency that will work on showing how oil is discovered, recovered, refined, products distributed, and how many things are made from it and natural gas.
Instead the ad people concentrate on pc and “green” scenes full of the airhead stuff the average citizen assumes is the real story wrapped in warm, vacant fuzzies. Some might rightly argue that stuff is all the many vacant heads it’s aimed at can absorb.
Adee, thats right, the green stuff amazes me. I am an open mind wanting to support them, they don’t explain where I can understand it and explain it to people I run across that blame “Big Oil”. In some ways I don’t feel bad for them for the grillings they get like today.
I have been hearing ads recently reminding people they are probably in the oil market thru their 401’s and such. Thats a start.
I guess the types of things I’m talking about are; if it is true regulations are holding back building refinerys, run ads asking us to call our Congressman. If all the different grades of gasoline they have to gear up for in the summer are the problem, tell us. Same for drilling in Alaska, and off California and Florida coasts.
You have inspired me to do something on the front page on this subject, Tim. I was involved in the industry for years os I guess I take my knowledge for granted. However, it is sad the oil & gas industry has to mount a public education campaign after paying untold billions in taxes to fund public schools in this nation. The environmental lobby is funded by grants and donations unlike the energy industry, driven by the phenomenal efforts, creativity and sweat equity of folks in the oilpatch.
Here is something I have never understood. In yesterday’s hearings, the oil execs were repeatedly asked why they aren’t spending more searching for alternatives. Why on God’s green earth should a company that has spent trillions of dollars over 50+ years searching for oil to sell to people go out and try to find an alternative for it? Do we expect Goodyear to find an alternative to rubber tires? Do we expect Ms. Bairds to fund a campaign to find an alternative to sliced bread?
The oil industry is the only industry that is expected to fund research that would lead to its own obsolescence.
I did like the reply one of the execs gave when asked why the company had only spent $100 million on research for alternative energy when they made $40 billion in profit. His answer was “Sometimes throwing more money at a problem doesn’t equal more progress.” That is a lesson Congress REALLY needs to learn…can anybody say “abolish the department of education”?
When do we get the chance to turn the tables on the idiots that are running our government. I’d love to sit Markey et al in the seats that the oil exeuctives were sitting in and blast them on our 4 trillion dollar deficit while everyone of them got richer in office. Hmmmmmmmmmm
I’m always amazed how people complain about the price of gas but think nothing of dropping almost five bucks for cup of Starbucks or well over $1.00 for a 12 oz bottle of water that comes from the Arkansas River.
First, they came for the telecom industry and we see how well that worked out. Being in that industry for years, I can tell you the only people that came out on top were the pols. The consumer got screwed. Then they went after tobacco. “It’s for the kiddies” we were told as Texas put another $1.00 a pack tax on us. What happens if every Texan stops smoking? Where do we get school funding then? I thought the lottery was going to fund the schools.
Now they are after big oil. And btw, federal diesel tax is $.245 a gallon, not $.184 cents. So when the feds finally manage to screw up the oil industry for good, then they can go on to something else.
Perhaps it will be the guy who makes widgets. When he is just managing to stay afloat, they are fine with him, but if the demand for widgets really takes off, and he is making more and more due to increased sales (like the oil industry) the government will decide he is making too much money and will find a way to put him out of business. You can’t drill in Texas because some Horney Toad might be living somewhere near you. Or the Houston Toad, the Austin Salamander, or the Yellow Cheeked Warbler. They don’t have to be on the land to be drilled, just near it.
Perhaps instead of carrying signs that say “Get Your Hands Off My Uterus” we can have signs that say “Get Your Hands Off My Business”.