Can someone tell me how it's Big Oil's fault?
 

I mean the last time I checked they are a for-profit company. I'm reading today how the government is grillin the execs about gas prices today on the hill, huh? Oil is bought here using dollars, the the rising price of gas is directly related to the falling value of the dollar we use to buy those barrels, how is it those execs are responsible to respond on the hill to a oil crisis that's the governments fault to begin with?!

The record profit margins are what is pissing people off. Pissed off people go after their representatives... representatives ask questions... etc.

Another witch hunt on capitol hill

yup a fucking witch hunt - remember folks, in America it is ALWAYS someone elses fault!

well the last time there was an energy concern, not too long ago, there were a group of guys running a for-profit company named Enron that claimed it was simple supply and demand.

They just neglected to tell anyone they were manipulating it on purpose.

Well, Exploration and Production has relatively fixed costs so the margin depends on the price oil sells for in the markets. OK, so it's not truly fixed as rising demand for drilling equipment ill increase the rental or purchase costs of equipment but not nearly as much as the increase in price. And it is E and P were are talking about as refiners aren't making record profits. In fact refining profits are down considerably from a year ago.

I'm with Matt.

Just view it as them eliminating Big Oil from the suspect list. Works out the same anyway.

I'm just telling you what people see.

People are also pissed off at the airlines for some reason. I have yet to figure that one out.

Hmmm, well I think whomever the senator or congressman that asked the oil execs their salaries and bonuses was doing more politicking than trying to "eliminate big oil from the suspect list".

For one reason, they shut down perfectly working refinaries and "forced" small companies to close up their refinaries as well, in the 80s-90s I think it was, in order to make bigger profits. Not just to make a profit, but to make bigger profits.. Now they spin it by saying part of the reason for the high prices is that there's a refinary bottleneck (even though they're only running 80-85% capacity) and that they haven't built a new refinary in decades and want the government to give them tax breaks and money to build some.

Gas/Oil is not only a national security issue but also extremely important to a healthy economy.. As such, IMO, it should be regulated to ensure this type of shit doesn't happen.

They say that oil companies only make about 10cents profit for every dollar they invest, but that they make so much money because they sell so much gas that it adds up fast.

I think people get pissed about a couple of different things. First is that they keep saying it is a refinery problem and we are refining as fast as we can but can't keep up with the demand and that causes prices to rise, yet they don't seem to work on building new refineries. Second is that prices seem to go up randomly. Here where I live prices went up 15 cents a gallon just for mother's day weekend. On Friday morning the stations in my town were at around $3.68 that afternoon the price was up to $3.83. It stayed that way until Monday morning then went down to $3.70. It seems like every day the price goes up a few cents, yet they will tell us that the oil they buy today will not actually be gas in our takes for a few months. It is frustrating to people when they are at the mercy of the gas company and they seem to raise the price whenever they feel like it and you don't have any choice but to pay it.

Anyway, I think these are a couple of reasons people get pissed off.

..Gotcha

Yeah I hear ya, but also agree that if people are pissed they have to show us something.

Way bigger stuff going on with coal than oil anyway I think. Such as lawsuits showing coal companies violate the clean water act, so what happens? Lawmakers change the laws rather than lose the case and have to slow or cease production. Fuck the water table anyway, lol.

Most people are retarded and need scapegoats.
Big oils profit margins are very reasonable at about 10%.
Most people don't understand that it is because of volume that the big oils are making so much money.
Heck if most of these big fat fuckers would get off their big asses and stop buying big ass SUV's to drive around, then maybe we wouldn't waste so much oil.

Thats what I'm saying the profit margins they make are completely acceptable in my world

Airlines have higher fuel costs = higher fees for check-in bags, pets, etc. to cover costs and hopefully make a profit.

If I had billions of dollars I wouldn't give two fucks about the average person.

extremely expensive running refineries.. the question i have is why are the refinieries only in North America?

why are they wasting time grilling these guys when there are still baseball players out there doing steroids.