Posted on 04/07/2008 1:30:32 AM PDT by Libloather
Vermont senators call for investigation of oil prices
The Associated Press
4/4/2008
MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Vermont state Senate called Thursday for Attorney General William Sorrell to launch a criminal investigation of major oil companies to see if recent petroleum price increases might involve price-fixing, consumer fraud or other violations of law.
"At the same time that we are paying $3 and $4 a gallon for gas and oil, the oil companies are making record profits, billions and billions of dollars," said Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham. "It's puzzling to us that so few politicians both on a state and national level are saying enough is enough," he told The Associated Press.
Shumlin, Majority Leader John Campbell, D-Windsor, and other Democrats joined the president of a statewide truckers' group and an official with a Burlington-based community action agency that helps provide heating assistance to low-income Vermonters to blast recent oil price increases.
The senators put their proposal in the form of a joint House-Senate resolution, which passed the Senate on by a vote of 30-0.
It called in part for the attorney general to take "aggressive and immediate steps to initiate an investigation of probable illegal and anticompetitive activities by oil companies."
Wherever the solution might come from, the problem is real and is being felt in Vermont, said Roland Bellavance, head of a Barre-based trucking company and president of the Vermont Truck and Bus Association, and Tim Searles, executive director of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity.
Bellavance said the trucks in his fleet average 5.3 miles per gallon of diesel fuel, which is over $4 per gallon. The trucks cost more than $1,200 to fill up, he added. "We're spending $1.5 million more this year for fuel alone."
...blast recent oil price increases.
Hearings, investigations, stalling, bitchin' and finger pointing won't bring the prices down. (Psssst. All it takes is poking a few holes in the ground.)
A vote of 30-0??? Looks like not a single one of these morons can connect the price of crude oil going over $100 a barrel with increases at the gas pump. How much have they raised taxes in the past few years and still kept (or even increased) their own salaries? Maybe there should be a simple economics test that one has to pass before he can run for public office....
They might find someone who knows about petroleum refining and do some basic math.
Of course, math is something Deomcrats do not know how to do.
If the answer is wrong, there must be a reason... Why use something simple like math to figure out gallons of diesel from barrel of oil refined, and figure out price from that...
The oil companies don't make the prices. The market sets the price. The good old basic law of supply and demand.
Yes, the oil companies are making the profit, but the profit goes back in as exploration of more risky/difficult places to drill for oil.
Politicians are just dumber than dirt.
Let the witch hunt begin.
It would be nice if they "investigated" how Congressional spending, high corporate taxes, and creative new ways to spend money through the Federal Reserve devalue the dollar and cause all commodity prices to rise.
It seems like they would investigate why there cheese and ice cream is so expensive. Idiots.
the things to watch, are refining margin and
refinery utilization.
the problem is that when Exxon reduces production,
they make more money, because the price goes disproportionatly up.
How much is a gallon of their Maple syrup now?
Just looked online. One gallon is $40.00!
Mandated use of oxygenating additives, specifically, ethanol.
Closed areas on the continental shelf.
All the myriad hoops to drill on Federal Leases, at least the ones which are open.
Paying all those CEOs to get subpoenaed to be bitched at and demonized in election-year soundbytes by the selfsame politicians who set the above policies, so the politicians can appear to be "doing something" and the CEOs can't (because they are in another effin' hearing).
Fuel taxes.
And a dollar which, if worth much less, will come on a roll for your convenience.
Jeez, I wonder why oil/fuel are so high?
Exactly, prices are set by the futures markets. Speculators have driven the price up. Basic supply & demand figures into the price speculators will pay for energy futures contracts. I read an article yesterday that said with inflation running at 35% annually in Venezuela now, Hugo Chavez needs a minimum of $98 bbl oil in order to break even on his “social” programs. Same type of thing in Middle East oil producing countries, Saudi Arabia now has inflation running at 7% PER MONTH. Obviously, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have enough US $ to drive the price of oil up through speculation on futures exchanges.
Vermonters...............lol........idiots all.
Nobody wants to say inflation though...
Refining margin and refinery utilization might impact the cost of refined products, but not crude oil prices. There are only two things that impact crude oil prices...supply and demand. Crude oil is a global commodity and is dependant on global supply and global demand.
This is a dog bites man story. All you have to do is change the date and a few details and the ratmedia can run this one every three months. It is part of the socialist conspiracy to fool the lemmings into helping them destroy America.
If someone wants to set me straight, and show me what I'm missing, please feel free.
And let's not forget maple syrup! I bet if someone would snoop around a little, a government subsidy would be found for this non-value-added commodity.
Every year gas prices go up in late May, and every year the idiots in congress “investigate”. Every year prices go down again and the “investigations” stop.
The only reason for it is to prepare us for the day when congress decides to set prices for oil products.
The 'oil companies' are not really a monopoly because they don't control the supply of all of the crude oil that we consume. They only control the supply of 35% of the oil we consume. Most of the oil that is produced in this world is controlled by 'national oil companies' (eg. Saudia Arabia's Aramco & Venezuela's PDVSA) whose policies are controlled by their local government. Most of those goverments are not interested in seeing the price of oil go down...they prefer that it go up.
Until we allow the international oil companies (Exxon, Shell, BP, etc) produce somewhere close to 100% of the oil that we consume then oil prices will continue to be controlled by the national oil companies.
Congress simply can not set the price of refined products because the USA imports 65% of the oil we consume. In most cases, refineries are buying oil from the national oil company of foreign countries. Those foreign countries have a greater ability to control oil prices than Congress does.
Now if Congress were to pass legislation that allowed our own oil companies access to enough reserves that they could produce 100% of the oil we consume, then they could set the price we pay for refined products.
do you even know what refining margin is?
Cancel ethanol subsidies, drill ANWR, drill the Gulf. Get on with it!
Oil companies make around 8% profit on each dollar of sales. They just happen to be so big that they are making a lot of sales.
Banks make more per dollar sale on financial instruments they sell. You think Nike is only making 8% profit on $150 shoes? Are record companies making 8% on sales of CDs? Is microsoft pocketing more than 8 cents per dollar on software?
Oil companies are huge and have consolidated. It's no wonder that profits have set "records." But that's not the only thing to judge by.
If oiil companies are "greedy" at 8 % profit, then a whole lot of other industries are greedy as well.
In the release it was stated....
aggressive and immediate steps to initiate an investigation of probable illegal and anticompetitive activities .
I believe that our own government should look at themselves for such action. After all the tax on gasolene is sufficient to warrant it as anti-competitive. Just my opinion. k2
I know, I know. An infinity of times.
The System also owns 17,199 shares of Chevron, 14,272 shares of Conoco-Phillips, and 2,698 shares of Marathon. (See page 511.)
What's even more deliciously ironic for the Vermont leftists is that there's 4,038 shares of the evil Halliburton in the fund as well.
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