Comments on: Republicans To Big Oil: “Pony Up Some Profits”

By: DosPeros

DosPeros — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 23:45:00 +0000

The real issue is the profit margin. For every 1 dollar in sales Exxon made 9.8 cents. This is nothing compared to other industries. The BIG EVIL here is that oil companies play by the same supply and demand principles that everyone else does and there was a high demand and limited supply (a bubble) and profits increased — but the profit margin (price – expenditure) did not.

By: TM Lutas

TM Lutas — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 23:31:07 +0000

If they invest in refinery capacity so we aren’t socked in future with these huge price spikes, that’s fine by me. Unfortunately, the stopper for that isn’t the oil companies, it’s environmentalists.

By: sleipner

sleipner — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 17:50:12 +0000

Frankly it’s yet another ludicrous Republican attempt to “suggest” good behavior to companies and expect them to line up and be nice – sort of like their voluntary environmental plan.

The oil companies for years have been playing the market to squeeze every penny out of consumers, much like the electricity companies screwed Californians during the energy crisis.

I don’t pretend that governmental regulation always does a better job, but in some cases it is necessary to protect the consumer from unbalanced corporate greed.

By: JonBuck

JonBuck — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 16:33:24 +0000

We tried this in the 70s. The result? Read this:

http://www.techcentralstation.com/110205E.html

By: debsay

debsay — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 15:01:33 +0000

I certainly don’t see this as good news. If congress can interfere with oil companies and tell them how they need to spend their ‘profits’, how could you be nieve enough to think that it would stop there????

These profits are temporary because as soon as they replace the oil in their reserves (that was bought cheaper) with the higher priced crude oil, these ‘profits’ then disappear. It works this way because Oil is a futures market.

To truly tell if consumers are being ‘gouged’ you would need to look at the ‘profit margins’ over a set period of time. If they have to pay more for the raw materials, then they of course will raise the price of their finished products, just as anybody would.