Posted on 02/01/2006 9:32:23 AM PST by GeneD
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said on Wednesday that Congress would attempt to address growing concerns about rising fuel prices and soaring oil industry profits. "We intend to do something about" rising prices to consumers, Chairman Arlen Specter said at a hearing into whether oil industry mergers in recent years have made gasoline more expensive at the pump.
Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he was shocked by the size of oil company profits, adding, "It just may be time to legislate in this field."
After the hearing, Specter raised the possibility of modifying federal antitrust laws to impose tougher oversight on mergers in the industry and crack down on any abuse of market power.
Further investigation was needed before reaching any final conclusions, Specter told reporters, but the number of mergers in recent years has been "excessive on its face."
"There are a lot of red flags out there," he said, referring to rising prices and record industry profits.
Exxon Mobil Corp. said Monday it earned $10.7 billion in the fourth quarter of last year and $36.1 billion for all of 2005 -- bigger than the economies of 125 countries.
Some industry critics have called for an excess profits tax.
Sen. Mike DeWine, chairman of the committee's antitrust subcommittee, said the biggest reason for the spike in fuel prices to consumers was rising crude oil prices.
DeWine, a Republican from Ohio, called for conservation measures and use of alternative fuels. "Try as we might, we simply can't drill our way out of this crisis," he told the hearing.
President George W. Bush said the United States was "addicted to oil" in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, and called for developing alternative energy sources, such as ethanol-blended gasoline and hydrogen fuel cells.
Officials from six major oil companies refused to testify at the hearing. Specter criticized their failure to appear and said he might seek subpoenas to compel their testimony.
The Judiciary Committee had asked representatives from Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Valero Energy Corp. and the U.S. units of BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc to tell their side of the story.
William Kovacic, a member of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, told the hearing that most sectors of the petroleum industry remained unconcentrated or moderately concentrated.
The FTC is investigating whether oil companies manipulated gasoline prices and oil refining production levels. The agency plans to finish its probe and send its findings to Congress this May.
Get ready for it, if they cap prices then it's going to be a fight just to get a gallon. Joy.
I hope that means reducing fuel related taxes! :^)
Oil companies who run at about an 8% margin should copy Microsoft and run a roughly 30% margin without getting called on it.
Sen. Specter investigates the necessity for the government to bring about and manage a gasoline shortage.
Specter is just being true to form. After impersonating a Republican in the Alito process he has to immediately impersonate a Democrat.
Please note, I wish to avoid the term "Energy Policy." All this bullsheet about "Alternative Fuels," etc, is just that. It's 100 years out. Sure we should be researching, trying out, and planning, but we are going to run on oil until and beyond then. There is no oil shortage, and there won't be. First things first. Oil is first. Then worry about the alternatives.
(1). George, where's the tax incentive plan to increase refinery capacity and build new refineries? The number one oil problem in our country??? Lack of refining capacity. No new refineries since the 50s! And don't tap dance me about environmental wackos. That's a problem we can handle with communications. (Or brute force.)
(2). Where's the tax incentive plan to increase domestic oil production? Ditto on the wackos.
(3). Where's the agressive communication plan to tell the American people that more drilling is not an environmental hazard. If it were, no one would live in Beverly Hills, where oil has been pumped for one hundred years and is producing today! George, take on the wackos! NOW!
(4). Where's the agressive tax on gas guzzlers? Where's the aggressive overhaul of our inane emissions requirements? Hybrid cars are kewl, but they don't add up, perhaps never will. If you want to plug in your Honda or Prius, guess what? you have to engineer that yourself. In the meantime, if VW can build a small diesel car with great performance that delivers 50mpg, how come something like it isn't rewarded with tax incentives for our struggling auto guys here? Plus, it would make the wackos happy!
5. For example: my favorite new American car is the Chrysler Pacifica. Beautiful. If they had a diesel, or even a diesel hybrid (which would really be kewl) I would buy it in a heartbeat, particularly if it were subsidized like the Prius!
I love fast cars as much as the next guy. But is there any need for a Honda Civic to be capable of 120mph? If it could only manage 80 and got 15 more mpg, would that be a good thing? Somebody at the top ain't thinking. Why are cars built for 1/4 mile, stop-light to stoplight acceleration? I remember when my favorite sports car went 0-60 in a now pathetically slow 12.+ seconds, but was geared to cruise nicely at 80, at a quiet 2750 rpm and could deliver 35mpg at a steady 70. What the hell is wrong with that?
ps. I have heard that the secret plan is to begin the fleet conversion to diesel. Anyone know anything?
Sounds like Spector is shaking down the oils again for more Republican campaign $$
Government makes more money on oil and gas than do the companies that actually make and sell the products.
Can you frame that with numbers. For example...
Exxon makes five cents profit on a gallon of gas while the federal government makes eight cents on the same gallon. That should clear up who is cheating drivers.
A short but good write up of the results can be found here: http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/0/edf8de04e58e4b14852570ba0048848b?OpenDocument. Once established, even President Reagan, who campaigned against it, couldn't kill the beast for years.
Sen. Specter, how about this instead? How about getting rid of the price gouging by the government on gas instead? Fed gas tax per gallon of 18.5 cents,,,national average state tax per gallon about the same,,,when adding in any local, city, county or municipal taxes--the TOTAL TAX PER GALLON NATIONALLY is about 50 cents per gallon!!
Want to lower gas prices? Get rid of the government GOUGING of fifty cents per gallon.
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