Posted on 05/08/2007 2:07:54 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Democrats slam Big Oil over $3 gasoline prices Tue May 8, 2007 4:46PM EDT
By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate's top Democrat on Tuesday accused big oil companies of shutting down refineries temporarily to raise gasoline prices and rake in"obscene profits."
Gasoline prices have topped $3 a gallon at service stations across the country because several oil refineries are offline due to maintenance or accidents, reducing gasoline production and making fuel supplies tight.
"It's outrageous ...Isn't it interesting every year about this time, a refinery goes down for repairs," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
"Is that coincidental? Or is it part of a plan that these multinational, huge companies who are making obscene profits in the tens of billions of dollars -- is this part of their game to keep the profits going?" Reid said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday announced seven congressional hearings in coming weeks on soaring energy prices and plans to put together a proposed package of energy bills by July 4 to address the issue.
"With Memorial Day travel and the start of summer driving only a few weeks away, drivers are paying a heavy price for the Bush administration's failure to enact a comprehensive energy strategy," said Pelosi.
"Years of Bush administration policies that have favored Big Oil over the consumers have resulted in record dependence on foreign oil," the California Democrat added.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Neither of those links explain why gas prices around here went up $.10 over night? Prices fluctuation from hour to hour. Why is that?
Thank you.
Maybe Democrats ought to be slamming themselves for $3 a gallon gas since it is predominantly their policies that brought us to this point. Democrats restrict drilling in ANWR and in the Gulf of Mexico, their enviro. regs over the decades prevent the building of refineries, then in October 2005 EVERY DEMOCRAT in the House along with a few RINO fools voted AGAINST lifting some of those regulations which would have allowed for more refineries to be built, and then their hero Bill Clinton not only vetoed drilling in ANWR (oil that would be on-line by now) and also imposed nearly 40 boutique fuel blends further constricting refinery capacity AND DEMOCRATS HAVE THE NERVE TO ATTACK OIL COMPANIES???
So what do the do-nothing Dems. plan to DO to bring down gas prices beyond just fuliminating nonsense against the oil companies?? What’s their plan? Or is it just like with Iraq: All criticism, all demagoguery, no constructive ideas?? How does this moronic political party even command 10% approval among Americans is beyond me.
Only thing that comes to mind is that your cargo might (notionally, at least) be bound for one or another refinery that's offline at the moment. Yes? No?
Perhaps bound for a refinery that was supposed to be back online by now but isn’t?
Hey, Dingy. When are you going to propose building more refineries???????
Inquiring Americans want to know.
Worth repeating.
'Tis a fact, Algore, and his family, owns an oil company as does the "Swimmer" Kennedy. How many more? Got no idea. And we never will...
Now combine that map with multiple octane ratings (that change from state to state) and summer/winter blends.
The government makes more per gallon of gas than the oil companies do. As long as this is true, it's the government we should be complaining about.
Well, Big Oil must be the real culprits, then.
We have it on good authority. From the great economic powerhouses themselves, the Democratican party elites and policy makers.
If small companies profits rocketed at 10.8%, they won't be in business very long. 10.8% is a paltry percentage, but I've never seen any company spend percentages. They spend dollars.
I begrudge no company that can make a great profit. Those companies employ thousands of workers. Now, if the damn government and eco-terrorists would get out of the way, the oil companies can reinvest their profits into new refineries.
OK, you caught me. I’ve never been more than 2 miles away from the channel, except to go to the airports. Not the nicest parts of any city, but, come on, you’ve got to admit, the view from the Ship Channel is pretty dismal.
I wish I could get away. It takes days of planning for me to slip away to a 7-11 to get a couple of 12-packs of Pepsi.
I can’t see outside of Baytown right now, but it will be interesting to see what the anchorage looks like when we get out of here.
I’m not sure where the stuff we’re carrying will end up just now, but during dinner, we just picked up another order to bring more of the same product back here from Corpus Christi, once we get out of here in a couple of days (?) This makes me suspect that they’re planning on having a destination for the product at some point... I just can’t see hiring us as a floating storage tank for such a hot commodity... (reaching for tinfoil hat)... or can I?
Our cargoes are often sold multiple times each day. It’s possible that this one was intended for a refinery doing maintenance, and therefore at reduced capacity. Chances are, if someone can take it off our hands, they will want to do so quickly, and not waste money. I can’t stress how expensive it is to charter a tanker, especially an American one like ours.
You are judging Houston by the part of Houston that everyone who lives around Houston, avoids, unless it is for work.
“The big oil companies, like other companies, will do anything in there power to increase their profits. If they can gouge the consumers and make greater profits by doing so, they will. If they can make greater profits by manipulating the supply, they will. If they can increase their profits by “cooperating” with other companies in setting prices, they will. This is capitalism, pure and simple.”
Dumbest post of the year. First of all, I can just see business voluntarily shutting down production to sell more of their product and make more profits...? Why don’t you tell us how that works, Mr. Keynes?
I can see it now at the board meeting: “Well Bob, why don’t you tell us about the May profit figures?”
“We did great Mr. Smith, we shut down production in the whole month of May, sold NO gasoline, and made billions?”
Nobody shuts down production unless they are going out of business - the Democrats are lying, what a friggin’ shock!
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