The Oil Companies make .09 cents a gallon profit on gas, the government makes .50 cents a gallon profit.?
345693
Absolutely, no one makes more than the government and that's why we have this antiquated traffic light system instead of the adaptive control system that cycle only when there is a break in traffic. (don't stop 50 cars to let one go).  On that 50 cents they use a large part of it to support their lavish life styles and it never goes back into transportation. You are right on the money. The more we use the more the government makes so where is the incentive????
453991
the oil company reported an all time high profit over 84 million, it is not supply and demand,the irs gave oil companies millions of dollars in tax breaks this year, how many millions of dollars in tax breaks did the working poor or the working middle class recieve, it is who has the highly payed lobbyist , who makes the biggest political contributions and who's interests are being looked after by the current administration which coincidentally includes some oil company investors there is nothing free about this type of democracy
1085158
we only produce 25 percent of what we use they claim so we get it from other allied countries. its bought alot cheaper than you think. the government pays less than half you see at the pumps for regular. there is enough oil and natural gas in the appalation mountains to last 2,000 years. there are other secret sites but they won't touch it as we would be paying 10 cents a gallon. the more they claim we don't have, the more profit they make. they don't want the easy route. it was discovered that we had so much excess oil athat many empty wells were being used to store it secretly, but they got caught to some point. the oil giants control the government.
1011589
~Let's see.  We work now until late may before we make a nickel for ourselves (duh, the rest going for taxes)  You're right.  50% is too much.  Let's keep it at our 40.5%.  Oops.  Forgot sales tax, tobacco tax, liquor tax, gas tax, ad nausuem.  We're paying close to 60%.  Bring on the warlords.  Sounds cheaper.
412541
I didn't know that, but on the Today show this morning they said a gallon of gas in Iraq is 35 cents and 12 cents in Venezuela!  We're getting ripped!
781385
You expected otherwise?  The drop in prices was a ploy by the oil companies to help get Repubs elected.  Now that the election is over and the prices are going back up, look for them to hit $3 a gallon by Christmas.  Merry Christmas from the big oil companies.  And besides that, they need to make more money.
322110
nothing would come of it.if the feds controlled gas prices then it would be worse.they would charge twice as much so that they could get more tax money off of it.
961060
Well Yes...On October 30, 2006 ExxonMobil announced that “its third-quarter earnings rose to $10.49 billion, the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company.” Royal Dutch Shell also “beat all forecasts with a 21 percent rise in underlying third-quarter profit.” \nDuring the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush criticized the Clinton Administration for allowing U.S. imports on foreign oil to reach 56% of U.S. oil consumption. Five years after President Bush announced his energy plan, U.S. imports of foreign oil have risen to 65% of U.S. consumption.
790990
http://www.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm
469357
the problem is that people don't understand the difference between profit and profit margins.  When the cost of Oil (a tradeable commodity) doubles, oil companies will pay twice as much for oil and their cut becomes bigger (twice as big in fact)
463011
No, profits are the American way. I doubt you were even born when the oil companies were struggling back in the mid-seventies and early eighties. Aquisitions and mergers have made them some of the strongest American companies.\nThere are now more known oil reserves world wide than ever before. There is also more demand than ever before. Hence oil is over $72 per barrel. We could get all we need from the Canadian oil sand deposits and it would be cheap. But it is being shipped around the world.\nFigure that
825130
gas and oil prices are determined by supply and demand on the world market.  Neither oil companies nor republicans control prices. Only thing they could do is build more refineries, which would result in greater supplies of gasoline, which would reduce prices further.  Liberals don't like refineries, because they think they cause pollution  and are beholden to the environmental lobbyists.  Oil companies don't build refineries, because they can't with govt approval and they're making big profits as things are, so there's no incentive to build them.
1120593
They are but prices for gas right now are through the roof. Try at least $3.50 for a gallon of gas. Everything is more expensive. There are a lot of locals who don't like tourist/ military here.
820638
I say bring it on. And, after the investigations have concluded you will hear that they find no wrongdoing. I know you libs and your conspiracies have it all figured out, but oil companies do not make but 8 or 9% profit on gasoline. Your answer for everything is more government control. It's supply and demand, THAT is what drives prices and we are in competition with China since we are the two countries who consume most of the oil in the world. Oh, one more thing, It's not George W. Bush's fault either!\n\nExcellent post! It's nice to know there are like minded people out there.
286256
As some rapper once said (sorry, not a rap fan), and it applies to everything the government has done forever...\n\n"If it don't make dollars then it don't make sense."\n\nThe article should clear up exactly how oil is involved in our situation...to say we are going to war to get the oil is putting it too simply, that's not the end reason.  The reason we need the oil is to cover for our weak dollar and our manufacturing going over-seas.
72668
for the most part no-the gasoline is regualted by the government
576765
The gas prices can be helped if the pricks at exxon and all the other fuel manufacture's would lower the price.  They only reported a 50% increase in profit last year.  Yea I say they could do something about it!!!1