Energy Companies and Congress

[MacTheWolf]

American energy companies donated to Congress, through their lobbyists, $850 million from 2001-2004. Did they just do this to affect future energy legislation? Nah, they wouldn't do that. Were our congressmen swayed by this $850 million? Of course they weren't.

It was probably just "by chance" that during the years 2001-2004, Congress granted the energy companies, like Exxon, $26 BILLION in subsidies. Yeah, that was it...just a coincidence.

[ramses]

why do liberals hate energy companies? Ther are a handfull of mega companies and THOUSANDS of smaller companies. Thank god (oh wait, i'm an athiest) thesecompanies spend the money and take the risk to drill a hole 20,000 feet down HOPING for oil at a cost of $25,000 a day on a 45-90 day hole. They have to spend money with lobbying because tlot of money is spent by the eco-fascists to stop drilling and exploration.

[MacTheWolf]

Ramses

One reason we hate energy companies...In 2006, Exxon reported profits of billions of dollars that they bled off consumers and Exxon payed no taxes on their profit.

[A-1]

All that I can say is that Electric Companies who would use our money that we pay them for power to lobby against us is...well...SHOCKING...

[A-1]

why do liberals hate energy companies? Ther are a handfull of mega companies and THOUSANDS of smaller companies. Thank god (oh wait, i'm an athiest) thesecompanies spend the money and take the risk to drill a hole 20,000 feet down HOPING for oil at a cost of $25,000 a day on a 45-90 day hole. They have to spend money with lobbying because tlot of money is spent by the eco-fascists to stop drilling and exploration.

If you think that is something you should find out what Hugh Hefner, Bob Guccione and Lary Flynn (before the shooting) spent on those ho(le)s...

But I can tell you one thing. Paris Hilton is the hole that has had the most money sunk into her... and it is easy to see why. Hell, I'd NEVER stop drilling her once I got started...fascist or slowest...nowithstanding



OUCH!

[ramses]

True, a few companies made obscene profit. I didn't hear anyone crying for them a few years back when they were all suffering. By the way, wall street is much more responsible for the high prices. It's futures trading that is screwing us.Liberals just hate to see a good company do good.

Capitalism, good
Communism/liberalism, bad!

[A-1]

True, a few companies made obscene profit. I didn't hear anyone crying for them a few years back when they were all suffering. By the way, wall street is much more responsible for the high prices. It's futures trading that is screwing us.Liberals just hate to see a good company do good.

Capitalism, good
Communism/liberalism, bad!

Hows about we put it like this...

Andrew Carnegie = GOOD... Rich CAPITALIST philanthropist who gave his fortune away... hmm, sounds pretty LIBERAL to me...

Mother Teresa = BAD?... but was she not poor, share everything that she had(Liberal principle) and did she not treat all the same? (Communist principle?)

...must have lost something in translation...

...looks like two different solutions to the same problem to me...

[sag111]

Lets see can we all say GREED

[MacTheWolf]

Unfortunately, every major and reliable energy source has plusses and minuses.

Oil - Too expensive for the poor and many middle class households but fairly plentiful.

Coal - Pollutes the land, water and air; has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of miners through cave-ins, methane explosions and Black Lung Disease; most abandoned coal mines are safety hazzards as coal mine owners take no responsibility for cleanup or filling in the land; strip mining is just ecological eyesore but safer. Coal, however, is cheap.

Nuclear Energy - Probably the most efficient and cleanest of all three choices. Only problem is what to do with nuclear waste which has a half-life from 50,000 years to several million years before it becomes inert (safer).

I've heard of a nuclear disposal facility in Utah that is not in use. If we spent millions of dollars to dig out this old salt mine, why not use it till someone comes up with a better idea?

Or...ship all the nuclear waste to DETROIT. Sorry Talula, I changed it from Bomb Detroit to use Detroit as a dump.

[markdf]

I work at a service station to pay for school, and let me tell you, seeing first hand how the pricing system works is SHOCKING -- it makes me glad I don't drive.

A coworker that I was training accidentally phoned in the wrong price to our head office during a competitor survey (we submit the prices of the stations nearby, so that they can adjust prices accordingly). He submitted a price that was about 10 cents lower than it was supposed to be... and ten minutes later we got the order to drop our prices to that level.

Fifteen minutes later, about half the city showed up to buy our gas (a testament to the effectiveness of cell phones at getting information around).

An hour after that, gas prices all around the city were dropping to the same level.

Thing is, the fact that they dropped the price based on that much shows just how bogus their claims that energy prices are competitive really are, and just how rigged the whole system is. The free market only keeps prices down when the companies aren't colluding to match their prices.

[A-1]

I work at a service station to pay for school, and let me tell you, seeing first hand how the pricing system works is SHOCKING -- it makes me glad I don't drive.

A coworker that I was training accidentally phoned in the wrong price to our head office during a competitor survey (we submit the prices of the stations nearby, so that they can adjust prices accordingly). He submitted a price that was about 10 cents lower than it was supposed to be... and ten minutes later we got the order to drop our prices to that level.

Fifteen minutes later, about half the city showed up to buy our gas (a testament to the effectiveness of cell phones at getting information around).

An hour after that, gas prices all around the city were dropping to the same level.

Thing is, the fact that they dropped the price based on that much shows just how bogus their claims that energy prices are competitive really are, and just how rigged the whole system is. The free market only keeps prices down when the companies aren't colluding to match their prices.

Dear Markdf,

You are a Very Wise Man.

The gasoline market has ALWAYS worked this way.

Greed, my friend, greed. sag111 tells it just as it is...

...but the greed is sometimes ours. When 3 buck a gallon gas is selling for 10 cents difference we are talking a price fluxuation of 5% or less. 60 or 62 bucks for 20 gallons. But it all adds up, doesn't it?

...bu the way, would you consider moving to my city and working at the neighborhoos 'stop and go' and fucking up like that regularly?

...I am sure that I can come up with a cotillion of senior citizens on fixed incomes to bribe you or to pay you 'kickbacks' ...or at least your tuition...



(OUCH! stop that!)

[Uncle Flo]

In the state where I live gas stations are required to sell fuel at no less than eight cents per gallon over their wholesale cost. This came about as a result of Walmart selling fuel below cost until all the local stations went out of business (and then raising the price far above what it used to be). The station where I buy most of my fuel (cheapest in the neighborhood) claims to use a mark-up of 10 cents which is their break even point. If they didn't sell junk food they couldn't stay open. --FLO--

[A-1]

In the state where I live gas stations are required to sell fuel at no less than eight cents per gallon over their wholesale cost. This came about as a result of Walmart selling fuel below cost until all the local stations went out of business (and then raising the price far above what it used to be). The station where I buy most of my fuel (cheapest in the neighborhood) claims to use a mark-up of 10 cents which is their break even point. If they didn't sell junk food they couldn't stay open. --FLO--

This is about right...

They, too, are at the mercy of the suppliers...

[IEunuch]

One thing though, we all are upset and even angry about the price of fuel today. It's not the individual, often franchised, service stations that are raking in the bucks. Many service stations are operating on wafer-thin margins, relying upon the stores to actually make a profit or allow them to remain open. Please do not unload your venom upon either the station managers, or the people behind the counter or filling your tank.

Actually, this could apply to just about any retail situation. The person behind the counter usually has zero control over anything. If they had any power at the store, the first thing they'd do is get themselves out from behind the counter and away from the people screaming at them over prices that are set by head office.

[markdf]

Dear Markdf,
...bu the way, would you consider moving to my city and working at the neighborhoos 'stop and go' and fucking up like that regularly?

You know, the funny thing is, I actually called up the head office and reported the mistake (being the excessively honest sucker that I am) ... but the beauracracy is so dense that it didn't get through.

Many service stations are operating on wafer-thin margins, relying upon the stores to actually make a profit or allow them to remain open.

We make absolutely NO money on the gasoline. It's all got to come from selling fatty poisons to suckers... and cigarettes of course, although the manager is such a motherly and compassionate woman that she regularly lectures people about trying to quit (shortly before offering them a plate of whatever she's brought into the office for dinner). Personally, I push people to buy cigars instead... Failing that, I steer them to the strongest, blackest, tarriest cigarettes that we have.

If they had any power at the store, the first thing they'd do is get themselves out from behind the counter and away from the people screaming at them over prices that are set by head office.

I don't know how it works in the US, but I've actually never had a customer get pissed at me about gas prices. I know Canadians are supposed to be friendlier and saner, but I really can't believe that it would be so much different that yankees would go around harassing gas station attendants. People here do get pissed off, but in a commiserating, we're-all-in-the-same-boat kind of way.