Now that gas prices have eased off a bit, maybe Americans are supposed to be cooling off, too. But some senators were still worked up enough Tuesday to give Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, and other witnesses a hard time. An FTC report released Monday attributed the sharp increase in fuel costs to market forces, not price gouging. But Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said that “there’s something really fishy” about using the supply-and-demand theory “as a cover to defend bad conduct.” And this from Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.: “What other industry behaves like the oil industry (where) when the cost of the raw material increases, their profits multiply?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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28 Comments
Gas is not like a normal product. It is more like medical care. We NEED it so we are at the producers’ mercy in terms of price. If we all used less gas (from not needing it as much), the price would go down. But consumers are only now being forced to conserve. Our government has done nothing with fuel economy standards or tax incentives except with hybrids. One idea that would have worked is a tax penalty for driving a guzzler and a rebate for a car that exceeds the CAFE limits in mpg. That would have kept us out of our current situation since tax increases on gas would never fly politically.
Lemme see if I’ve got this straight.There was an investigation on price gouging, they find nothing. That story, of course, is not on the front page, and the results of said investigation are still seen as “fishy.”Yet the state of Kansas runs a deeply flawed study on school finance and, “Well, gee whiz, you gotta do what the study says because it said what we wanted it to say!”:-)
D-uh….Oil profits are skyrocketing and Congress is just now realizing that? Yep..we have the best government (oil) money can buy.
Don’t re-elect anyone.
Crude oil made the plastic your computer is made from along with most products, including cars, and if The Jews keep threatening the Middle East supply of crude oil, then the price cannot come down. No matter how much diversion you dangle in front of John Q Public.
Yesterday Haaretz printed a threat to launch 200 Atomic bombs into Iran.
Crude was traded from 9 dollars to 75 dollars on supplies being NOT available.
The “gouging thing” is just another Zionist trick to keep your stupid eye off the ball.
All three Networks never mentioned “supply” last night.
After 2 weeks of no threats, the price started to come down, but shot-up this morning on the threat.
Hopfully this new threat is just profit taking. As the Zionists get quiet, buy futures, then threaten and sell-off as the price spikes.
It is my understanding (from talking with Mountain Man)that gasoline is a by-product of refining oil. Essentially it is the water the hot dog is boiled in. So why are we paying so much for ‘hot dog water’?
“There was an investigation on price gouging, they find nothing.”
Sure there was an investigation – but by whom? The oil-industry-friendly Bush administration.
No wonder conservative Republicans like Trent Lott think there is something fishy.
The government always does the price gouging investigation when prices rise. It is a political move only and they never find anything. The tax breaks and other give-aways are in plain sight and require no pseudo-investigation. We have elected our problems here – live with it and shut up. And consider voting in your economic (and environmental) interests next time – I know, a radical idea.
You know what is missing here?
Ah, yeah, that’s it:
The proof of price gouging.
You know what there is plenty of here?
Ah, yeah, that’s it:
More rhetoric about Bush and Big oil…
Maybe gas stations charge you more money because they don’t like you.
When you get to the bottom of the money pile, it remains that the cost of producing a gallon of gas hasn’t changed a bit. But the profits are just to good to ignore, so oil companies are going to gouge, and Bush is going to continue giving them tax breaks. Samo, samo.
J M Walker,
So how does the market play into this?
The price of oil is determined by traders. That price is based on supply and demand. Has nothing to do with price gouging.
I just read that the FTC person who did the “investigation” came from the oil industry.
Ben,
Did you by chance happen to read any evidence to show price gouging?
Only anecdotal evidence Nathan. That is why we need a REAL investigation.
Should the Carr brothers’ parents have been put in charge of investigating them?
Thats what I thought.
Nathan – do you have any proof that there is NOT any price gouging?
I dont have to.
Ed is right. It isn’t just the gas, it’s the petroleum that’s used for all our plastics. Take a look around and notice how we’ve moved from glass and cans to plastic for most everything. Even those heavy metal bumpers we used to have on cars are now nothing more than plastic.
And, Julie, I don’t know about gas being a by-product of oil refining, but I do know that propane is the slough-off of it. And look at the price of that.
That’s what I thought.
If the environmental whackos would allow off shore drilling we could see a reduction in the cost of gas. We also would not have to be dependent on other countries for our oil.
And what will we do when the offshore oil (how much is there?) is gone?
Oh, I forgot. For people like you, STS, it will be someone else’s problem. You just want your cheap oil now, but you dont care what problems you leave for others to clean up.
Like the preznit is leaving the whole middle eastern mess he created to be cleaned up by “future presidents”.
Heheh. Let’s hope those future leaders are really presidents, not preznits.
The classic liberal position:
Liberal:
“We have too much dependence on oil from other countries!”
Conservative:
“Lets drill for more domestic oil now and work on more long term solutions along the way.”
Liberal:
“What happens when that runs out? We don’t even know how much there is! What about the environment?!”
Conservative:
“We have some of the most sophisticated drilling operations in the world, the environment will be protected and we can have oil. We might no know just exactly how much oil there is, but we can at least try while we work on more long term solutions.”
Liberal:
“We have too much depenence on oil, we need to make better cars that don’t use gas!”
Conservative:
“Of course we do and we are working on new technologies which involve nuclear power. For now, drilling for oil will solve our problems while we work on more solutions.”
Liberal:
“No Nuclear power! No drilling! We need a solution!”
Conservative:
“Um, we keep offering solutions…”
Liberal:
“No Nuclear power! No more Drilling! We need more oil!”
Conservative:
“Well, um, we were just saying that we can build better Nuclear power plants which are safer and more efficient and drill for more oil now while we work on long term solutions.”
Liberal:
“No more drilling! No more Nuclear power! We need solutions!”
Conservative:
“Well, um, like we were saying, we need more oil. Our economy needs oil. Right now, there is no other immediate solution. Drilling will help, building more refineries will help. It will buy us time to develope better ways (rude interuption)
Liberal:
“You don’t care about the environment! You want to kill the animals! No more drilling! No more Refineries! No more Nuclear Power! We need solutions!”
And thus the debate continues…
Bush: Let’s nuke the supply we have now, which will force us back to the stone-age where there are no plastics, no cars, no asphalt, no medicine and no need for oil.
I’m the “decider” and that’s what the Zionists told me what to do.
Thanks for illustrating the debate so well.
I am sure the readers can see it clearly in nathan’s posts.
He isnt even smart enough to be ashamed of his ingnorance. He’s proud of it!
We give the Zionists 30 billion and they brag about giving us “garbage time.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=719891&contrassID=25&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=1&listSrc=Y&art=1
The United States and the Palestinians are being “HAD”
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon once said “the Arabs may have the oil but we’ve got the matches”
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/April/6%20o/Bomb%20in%20Basement%20Comes%20to%20the%20Fore%20%20By%20Linda%20S.%20Heard.htm