And the Gloves Came Off

[STLR FN]

Ding Ding (http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060411/AUTO01/604110394)

Taking an unusually public swipe at another industry, Chrysler's chief spokesman slammed major oil companies Monday, accusing them of greed and indifference to the environment.
The blunt remarks by Jason Vines, vice president of communications for DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, are likely to fuel tensions between Big Oil and the auto industry that have been rising along with gas prices.
"Big Oil would rather fill the pockets of its executives and shareholders, rather than spend sufficient amounts to reduce the price of fuel, letting consumers, during tough economic times, pick up the tab," Vines wrote on a company blog, www.thefirehouse.biz (http://www.thefirehouse.biz/), used to communicate with journalists and financial analysts.

[03MERCMARAUDER]

Glad to see the the auto industry thinks the oil companies are thieves too. This is all rediculous. Did you see that Exxon/Mobil made a record 36.1 billion in profits. That is rediculous.

Joe

[jgc61sr2002]

It's is about time.

[Shora]

It's about time someone stands up to these greedy oil companies. I know that prices are too high. When the oil companies are reporting record profits in with an economy such as this something is wrong. As a result of the corp. influance in politics we are forced to take it. I am shocked that we, the people, do nothing about this.

They are milking us dry. Unlike other products, we are forced to use gas.

[03MERCMARAUDER]

You know its getting out of hand when people are saying I will have to choose to either pay my rent or put gas in my car.

[hitchhiker]

I bought $2500 worth of XOM today.

It was down a little and I thought it a good opportunity to buy.

Regards,

Dave

:D

[Leadfoot281]

Gas was about $5/gallon when I was stationed in Germany in 1991. It's over $9 now in England. I think they'd love $3/gallon gas.

With our 4.5% unemployement, low, low gas prices, and the market near all time highs I have a real hard time complaining about anything.

Even the environmentalists are smiling! It's been 30 years since a new refinery has been built in this country.

Anyone who has money in the market, in the same or similar mutual funds as me, is making a pile of money.:) :)

Wait till 1 billion Chinesse get their drivers licences. See what supply and demand does to gas prices then! (oooh, wait, that's already happening. Nevermind.)

Reduced demand=lower prices. Gas is a commodity in limited suppy with increasing demand.

[1 Bad Merc]

I am in the Chemical import/export/storage business and the oil companies have plenty of oil. They actually have ships sitting right now off the U.S. coast that are filled with oil and they dont have the storage space to unload them all.

What's killing the price of gasoline is the lack of refinery's here in the States. When they have a couple of them damaged/shut down due to Katrina and then have to switch more of them over to comply with the government mandated summer gas program, this is what causes your gas scarcity and increased market prices. It is very hard to shut down a refinery to make the required summer gasoline switch. When they try to restart them they have all kinds of problems/accidents. This is what happened with the large BP Amoco refinery explosion in the Houston area last year. I dont remember the exact total but I believe 13 people where killed when they tried to restart their number 2 plant.

On top of that, the refinery's that we do have are pretty old and outdated and cost alot of money to operate and maintain. The EPA and the Government have basically shut down the building of any new refinery's here in the States and we are running on the old infrastructure that was built to handle the 60's and 70's era of gasoline consumption. I have a good friend at ExxonMobil who told me that his' company did not even want to attempt to go through the EPA mandated certification process for building a new refinery because it was such a long/pita process. It's alot cheaper/easier for them to just charge more for less gas then to attempt the new refinery certification process!

Add the lack of competition/no free market (for production of gasoline and by products only) + older refineries+limited refining capacity + older pipeline infrastructure+almost impossible to meet government laws and regulations for gasoline content and the building of new refineries + serious growth of oil usage both here and abroad + price increase of a barrel of oil = our cost of gasoline.

When you look at the above equation you can now see why gasoline prices are here to stay and will probably rise alot higher in the near future. This has a huge ripple effect on the U.S. economy and it will all be passed directly to us, the consumer, as we will see the prices of all our essential goods increased to cover these higher gasoline costs.

That's my .02 and I have now officially stepped off the soap box!:)

[O's Fan Rich]

That's not a soap box 1 bad, thats the facts Jack!
Oil companies are making record profits no doubt. But fuels would be less expensive if we did not have the regulations imposed upon them. That winter/summer thing is a killer. Then on top of that the regs vary froim region to region, requiring different mixes for different areas. Then don't let them update and build new refineries and you get what we got... we have not seen nothing yet, I fear.
Watch the poloticians blame the oil companies and not accept any of the responsibility. And God knows they won't relinquish their tax money on fuel.
I just saw a bid for fuel for a local Township, regular @1.67 a gallon, diesel @ 1.78, while we pay 2.65. Why? Large purchase and NO TAX!

[rookie1]

What's killing the price of gasoline is the lack of refinery's here in the States. When they have a couple of them damaged/shut down due to Katrina and then have to switch more of them over to comply with the government mandated summer gas program, this is what causes your gas scarcity and increased market prices. It is very hard to shut down a refinery to make the required summer gasoline switch.

On top of that, the refinery's that we do have are pretty old and outdated and cost alot of money to operate and maintain. The EPA and the Government have basically shut down the building of any new refinery's here in the States and we are running on the old infrastructure that was built to handle the 60's and 70's era of gasoline consumption.

Add the lack of competition/no free market (for production of gasoline and by products only) + older refineries+limited refining capacity + older pipeline infrastructure+almost impossible to meet government laws and regulations for gasoline content and the building of new refineries + serious growth of oil usage both here and abroad + price increase of a barrel of oil = our cost of gasoline.

That's my .02 and I have now officially stepped off the soap box!:)

The problem with this argument is that the "lack of refineries" logic doesn't explain why gas prices were half of of what they are now 3 yrs ago. The lack of refineries condition was still present and the demand was not significantly lower. Crude oil was trading at $40 barrel in the not so distant past. It's now regularly bumping $70 barrel.....pretty simple to see a higher price correlation there.
The refinery issue is not totally without merit and with the environmentally friendly technology we have today I'm certain a new one could be built responsibly. I believe the oil companies are using this issue to lobby the feds into either a relaxations of the regs or some form of corporate welfare via tax incentives to offset the cost of building a new one

[gpfarrell]

Why is a barrell of oil now $70/barrell instead of $40?

Because China is willing to pay that much.

If you were selling your Marauder, wouldn't you want to get the best price you could? Why should oil companies be any different?

The refinery circus further convolutes matters by wiping out any elasticity of supply or economies of scale.

Compared to yesterday, gas isn't cheap. But compared to anyplace else on the planet, we've got it good.

We have cheap gas and I love it. I love my V8's... nobody is making me drive them so you'll never hear me complain about the price of fuel.

This is America. Please don't tell companies how much profit they are permitted to make. Please don't regulate any more apects of our lives. We're all free to make our own decisions and live accordingly. We should also be accountable for making those decisions.

Soapbox relinquinshed.

[Shora]

Why is a barrell of oil now $70/barrell instead of $40?

Because China is willing to pay that much.

If you were selling your Marauder, wouldn't you want to get the best price you could? Why should oil companies be any different?

The refinery circus further convolutes matters by wiping out any elasticity of supply or economies of scale.

Compared to yesterday, gas isn't cheap. But compared to anyplace else on the planet, we've got it good.

We have cheap gas and I love it. I love my V8's... nobody is making me drive them so you'll never hear me complain about the price of fuel.

This is America. Please don't tell companies how much profit they are permitted to make. Please don't regulate any more apects of our lives. We're all free to make our own decisions and live accordingly. We should also be accountable for making those decisions.

Soapbox relinquinshed.

We, Americans, are usually forced to drive longer distances to work, school, etc. than most places in the world as well. Also, our public transportation is also not what it could be. Just wait until food companies learn and begin charging record prices. I guess you will advocate 400 million $ plans for tyson when their CEO calls it quits.

I wonder why oh why At&T was broken up. It's only capitalism.

In the mean time and as the joke goes, I will just ride my horse to work.

[BAD MERC]

I don't have a horse, but I have this and it gets 55MPG...

[ctrcbob]

Leadfoot mentioned $5.00 a gallon in Germany in 1991, and $9.00 a gallon in the UK right now.

In 2002, I was paying over $5.00 a gallon in France. When I picked up my lease car, which comes with only one gallon in it, I filled up with 16 gallons and it cost me around $86.00. On another day, I filled up with 11 gallons and it cost me about $58.00. All this was when the Dollar and the Euro were about even.

I'm returning in four weeks, and will pick up my leased Renault Laguna at the airport, and figure that it will cost me about 105Euros, or about $130.00 for the first fill up. (Dollar is very low vs the Euro).

Funny thing that I saw the last two times there. While in Annecy, in the French Alps, people from Geneva Switzerland would cross into France, come down to Annecy and buy fuel and groceries, and other items, as they cost less in France than in Switzerland.