Surprise! More politician grandstanding on energy policy

[dissent]

It's worth reading this R-Squared essay in full.

a couple tidbits -

Government Gougers

The price of gasoline is composed of four components. The largest component of the price is crude oil, 67%, followed by federal, state, and local excise and sales taxes on gasoline sales, 13%, refining expenses, 11%, and distribution and marketing expenses, 9%.

Important to note here is that governments already make up the second largest component of gasoline prices — well ahead of gasoline profit margins for oil companies. So if the oil companies are greedy gougers, what does that make the government? I guess it is fortunate for the governments that they don’t have to issue quarterly ‘earning statements’ on what they ‘earn’ from higher gasoline prices, because we would see them already earning more on gasoline than the oil companies, and yet demanding more.

and

Here I have summarized Senator Schumer’s “no-brainer”, and the reason why Chuck should be kept as far away from energy policy decisions as possible. Decisions like this are one reason our dependence on foreign oil has increased from one presidential administration after another since the 1970’s.

With all of the political double-speak and grandstanding around issues like this, is it any wonder why we don’t have a consistent, coherent energy policy in this country?

[null0010]

I'm seeing that the government is responsible for 13% of the price of gasoline and that oil companies are responsible for 87%. Unless there is something I'm missing.

[Lothar]

I'm seeing that the government is responsible for 13% of the price of gasoline and that oil companies are responsible for 87%. Unless there is something I'm missing.

The oil itself is responsible for 67% (ie, that's the raw cost of that much crude).

Oil companies are responsible for 20% more, which includes all of their refining and distribution costs. Only a fraction of that 20% is profit.

The government is responsible for 13%, virtually all of which can be thought of as pure profit.

The key point here is that certain government blowhards have been complaining about oil company profits, even though the government generates much higher profits from oil than the oil companies do.

[null0010]

Who decides the cost of crude oil?

[woodchip]

Who decides the cost of crude oil?

OPEC and speculators

[dissent]

you might find this helpful.

[Ferno]

don't forget lothar, that part of that 67% is the oil companies' profit margin.

[Will Robinson]

don't forget lothar, that part of that 67% is the oil companies' profit margin.

Are we combining "oil company" like Exxon etc and the oil producing country that sells the crude to an Exxon?

[Foil]

That's the question I have. Are we talking about refinery companies here, or drilling companies, or both?

[woodchip]

Refineries are part of the problem only because there are not enough of them...thanks to all the regulations preventing new ones from being built.

[Ferno]

oh no, there's plenty of refineries. the problem lies mainly with the speculators pushing prices higher than they really need to be. and will, i'm mainly combining the companies. the exporters are a different matter altogether.

[Spidey]

I think you both might be wrong…

(but Woody is probably closer)

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/d ... ining.html

[dissent]

Prices go up when speculators CAN get a higher price for a futures contract because some people are willing to pay MORE for a share of the available supply.

U.S. refineries do not produce all of the finished motor gasoline that we consume. especially since about the 70's, the trend on IMPORTS of finished gasoline has been generally been on an upward trend.

Here's some data on exporters of gasoline to the US in 2007.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3887

The U.S. also exports finished motor gasoline, lots of which goes to Mexico.

[Ferno]

and a lot of the US gasoline gets imported from Canada.

also, a lot of oil companies own the entire chain from pulling it out from the ground all the way to the pumps, making a fair bit of money from each step.

[flip]

Quit telling the damn truth Ferno, you gotta be more 'reasonable'.
Truth is those Texas Oil Boys took over the world and nobody wants to believe it.

[dissent]

LOL. ExxonMobil (of Irving, Texas), for example, controls only a small percentage of the world's oil reserves - most of the world's oil is controlled by STATE owned oil companies.

[Tunnelcat]

Refineries are part of the problem only because there are not enough of them...thanks to all the regulations preventing new ones from being built.

Guess what the real reason was that the Army Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza Spillway? Well, to protect those vulnerable oil refineries on the lower Mississippi, that's why. Can't have an oil refinery shut down by a measly 100 year flood can we? Especially since we don't HAVE very many refineries in this country to begin with. All those lowly farmers downstream of the spillway can rest assured that oil prices will stay down, even though their newly planted crops and homes are now destroyed.

[dissent]

Guess what the real reason was that the Army Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza Spillway?

Really. So all this we've heard about trying to minimize damage to towns downstream was all just a smokescreen.

Do let us know when Assange dumps the super-secret conspiracy memo, won't you.

If the refinery had flooded, you'd probably be ranting on and on about how they could possibly be so polluting, etc, yada-yada-yada .......

[Top Gun]

Yeah, there were little places called Baton Rouge and New Orleans whose levees might not have been able to take the full surge of the river.

[Ferno]

LOL. ExxonMobil (of Irving, Texas), for example, controls only a small percentage of the world's oil reserves - most of the world's oil is controlled by STATE owned oil companies.

unless there's been a huge shift, oil from companies like Petronas doesn't really make it over here.

[CUDA]

Refineries are part of the problem only because there are not enough of them...thanks to all the regulations preventing new ones from being built.

Guess what the real reason was that the Army Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza Spillway? Well, to protect those vulnerable oil refineries on the lower Mississippi, that's why. Can't have an oil refinery shut down by a measly 100 year flood can we? Especially since we don't HAVE very many refineries in this country to begin with. All those lowly farmers downstream of the spillway can rest assured that oil prices will stay down, even though their newly planted crops and homes are now destroyed.

and of course you have evidence to back up your assertion, right?


I'm sure there's an "It's all Bush's fault" in that quote somewhere