OT: Gas prices

[Lobo]

You think it's bad now, just wait another few years.

This is some scary shit:

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

Crack out the horse and buggy.

[BeardedOne]

Thanks to my car having been attacked by a herd of rabid deer a few weeks ago I had to shop it and get a rental for an upcoming trip.

Reading over the rental agreement I noticed that they'd adjusted the refill rate to $3.25. Ordinarily, I'd bug my eyes out at the rental refill rate, but with the gas prices licking at $3.00 now (And I'm in a "cheap" state), they'll regret having aimed so low.

I am gonna bring that car back soooooooooooooooo freakin' empty, they'll have to push it to the pump.

[hwbs]

was watching msnbc this morning.....some idiot was trying to charge 4.70 a gallon...their xcuse is the gas man doesnt come that often.

[Gus The Dagger]

What gas man? No such thing. I would never fall for the gas man trick.

[chefmike]

Is It Time to Nationalize the Oil Industry?

http://www.hungangels.com/board/view...t=6665&start=0

[fitz207]

You might want to read this: April 14, 2006— Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn't complaining.

Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits.

Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.

Last November, when he was still chairman of Exxon, Raymond told Congress that gas prices were high because of global supply and demand.

"We're all in this together, everywhere in the world," he testified.

Raymond, however, was confronted with caustic complaints about his compensation.

"In 2004, Mr. Raymond, your bonus was over $3.6 million," Sen. Barbara Boxer said.

That was before new corporate documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that revealed Raymond's retirement deal and his $51.1 million paycheck in 2005. That's equivalent to $141,000 a day, nearly $6,000 an hour. It's almost more than five times what the CEO of Chevron made.

"I think it will spark a lot of outrage," said Sarah Anderson, a fellow in the global economy program at the Institute for Policy Studies, an independent think tank. "Clearly much of his high-level pay is due to the high price of gas."

Exxon defends Raymond's compensation, pointing out that during the 12 years he ran the company, Exxon became the largest oil company in the world and that the stock price went up 500 percent.

A company spokesman said the compensation package reflected "a very long and distinguished career."

Some Exxon shareholders are now trying to pass resolutions criticizing the company's executive pay policies. The company is urging other shareholders to vote against those resolutions.

[White_Male_Canada]

Prices are controlled by the interplay between supply and demand not some conspiracy of secret oligopolists.


According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey, consumers spent only 3.3% of their annual income on gasoline. So people are not going to change their habits and will continue to exercise freedom of choice and drive their 4X4`s if they wish to.

The futures price of crude oil in the summer of 2000 was 27.00 per barrel. By the summer of 2005 it was almost 70.00,about a 20% annual increase. During the same time gas went up from $1.46 to $2.61 per gallon,an increase annually of 12% (US Dept. of energy). Prices increases immediately seen at the pumps are based upon expected replacement costs relative to current demand.It is a sunk cost relative to opportunity cost.

Government intervention would be a socialistic/marxist emotional re-action.What the radical left is saying is that under normal conditions,supply and demand work well,but under a crisis, cease to respond.It is the exact opposite.Under a crisis the free market responds as it should.So under normal conditions emotional leftists agree and accept the outcomes of supply and demand and tolerate the prices they pay for goods and sevices under routine circumstances.But when a crisis occurs these same people suddenly dislike higher prices under the exact same set of pricing structures in terms of supply and demand.

Refineries are operating at maximum output.None are being built,why? Ask the enviros.No drilling is being done on the mainland or off the coasts,why? Ask the enviros.Even windmills are being fought by the BANANAs,Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Nowhere.

Barbara Boxer is complaining about Exxon`s Lee Raymond`s buyout after 43 years of service?

D.Sen. Barbara Boxer
Assets: $1.2 million to $5.5 million.
Interest, dividend and retirement income: $131,000 to $1.1 million.
Liabilities: None listed.
Most of Boxer's assets are in a blind trust she set up in 2001 after catching flak for owning stocks in some of the same energy companies that she accused of overcharging Californians for electricity. http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050616/NEWS10/506160332/1024