SeaHorse II wrote:The GD oil companies appear to be the villains as far as the price of gas & diesel is concerned.
*I don't think it's just the oil companies.* The price and distribution of oil is as much determined by the oil speculators--- here and abroad--- as it is by the oil companies themselves.* Even more so maybe.
I don't blame the oil companies for the price of fuel so much as I do the speculators and commodities "brokers."* The oil companies pump it out, turn it into something, and sell that something to whoever pays the most for it minus whatever political pressure can be brought to bear on them not to.
The amount a country or distribution company pays for oil or refined petroleum products is largely based on what the commodities speculators on the planet--- the middle men as it were--- have done to the price.
If they make it more profitable--- for themselves AND the oil companies--- to sell product in country X than in country Y, the product will go to country X.
Then when you add on the taxes countries, states/provinces, counties, cities even, attach to the sale of fuel to the public to raise revenue, the water starts getting really muddy.* The oil companies don't have anything to do with or reap any benefit or penalty from the taxes attached to the price of a gallon/litre of fuel.* The taxes are courtesy of our elected officials.
I read somewhere awhile back that the actual price of a gallon or litre of gasoline in the US was pretty much the same as the price of a gallon or litre of gasoline in Europe.* The big difference was not what the oil companies were selling their product for, but the taxes that were applied to the product along the line from the tanker that brought it to the tank in your car.
I don't know if this is still true as energy becomes a more volatile commodity on the planet, or if it was ever true.* But the explanation I read at the time made sense.* And he will find getting back into boating much more pleasant.* And we'll all owe him big time.
So, you can blame the oil companies if you want to.* It's sort of like blaming Ford for the increasing cost of automobiles.* And I don't mean to imply that the oil companies are the poor innocents who are just "doing their job."
But I think the consumer's wrath is far more deserved by the speculators and commodities brokers who do NOTHING to produce, refine, or distribute fuel but simply make oodles of money--- oodles that are paid for by us in the cost of the product--- by "passing" the product through their grubby little hands.
This same mentality can be found in the guys who at one end pay a lobsterman $2.00 a pound for a lobster which at the oher end costs you $20 a pound.
While a US president might have some effect on all this in the form of some sort of "energy" policy (which the global market will for the most part totally ignore), I think the effect of whatever the president believes about energy has pretty much squat-all to do with what you pay for a gallon of gas this afternoon.* In that respect I no more blame Obama for my fuel bill than I did Bush or Clinton or Bush or Reagan or.........
It seems a little hypocritical and naive to on the one hand preach about how socialism/communism is bad and that captitalism and free markets and the individual right to succeed is where it's at, and then whine about what capitalism, free markets, and the individual right to succeed has done to your fuel bill.
PS-- Regarding the pipeline that Obama supposedly "nixed," it's my understanding that the pipeline and its proposed route has to be approved by every state it would cross.* Nebraska didn't like the route and said so.* They want the route changed in certain places.* It is my understanding based on what I've heard on the radio and read that Obama put a hold on the project at Nebraska's--- or at least the people in Nebraska with the power's-- request to hold it up it until Nebraska's concerns could be addressed.
And what does all this have to do with Doc's original question?* Well, if Doc can wipe out the oil speculators on the planet he will probably find that the cost of filling the tank on a boat will come down, or stay the same, or at least not go up so fast. So he wil find returning to boating that much more pleasant and we will all owe him big time.
-- Edited by Marin on Sunday 26th of February 2012 05:48:42 PM
