[kellynla]

New taxes will be no solution to high prices at the pump. President Reagan's axiom seems apt: "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."

[kellynla]

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/1139.html

[umgud]

I was listening to Durbin the other day. He said the oil companies have too big of profits and it's high time some of that goes back to the people and the gov't. Back to? He acts like it was the gov't in the first place. G-d save us from fools.

[mc6809e]

The tax issue is long past being all that important. Peak oil appears to be happening right now. No manipulation of the tax code is going to make more oil magically appear.

Besides, such games are only playable with US companies. US oil production peaked in 1972. US oil just isn't relevant anymore.

Global peak oil is now.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

With all the success of the day off illegal immigrant protests, perhaps the oil companies should have a day off without gasoline?

[TheEaglehasLanded]

It's not 46 cents on average, that's low. It's more like 60-70 cents with all the taxes from the well head to the pump.

[FreeKeys]

"greedy" oil companies

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The 20 largest oil-producing countries produce about 57 million barrels/day, about 87% of world production of crude oil.  More than 84% OF THAT (73% of the world's total) is produced by countries whose GOVERNMENTS (read: politicians) have a say in the price of oil whether the government actually owns the oil companies or not. 

The USA produces 5.4 million bbl/day.  The U.K. produces 1.8 mb/d  Canada produces 1.6 mb/d.  So these 3 countries, where governments DON'T set the oil price, as huge as they and their oil companies are, produce only 8.8mb/d altogether, or only 14% of world production.  Thus they're swamped by the rest of the world's oil-producing countries.

Even if the "BIG OIL"companies in these free-enterprise countries could arbitrarily and unilaterally raise the price of crude, which they CANNOT, they'd be undercut IMMEDIATELY by the rest of the world's producers, which are, all together, SIX TIMES BIGGER.

So let the idiots yell and scream about "BIG OIL" all they want.  All they're doing is admitting (loudly) in public, in the most humiliating way possible, that they and the rest of their favorite pundits and politicians don't know what in hell they're talking about.

(stats provided courtesy of http://www.gravmag.com/oil.html#producers )

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