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["Jerry W. Shepperd" <shepperd AT austincc.edu>]

James,

Well said.

Jerry Shepperd


At 11:43 AM 6/14/2007, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:


> > We little guys can do nothing about the global energy situation.
>
> This I would emphasize by adding that whether gas prices are the result of a
> depleting resouce or whether the evil oil compaines are just gouging the
> consumer, it is little odds.  There is STILL nothing we little guys can do.
>
> Even if all the conspiracy flack were true, do you really think that there is
> someone we could elect, some protest or boycot we could organize, that would
> result in the oil companies saying, "Ah, eh, you got us.  The gig is up.  To
> make it up to you, gas will now be 75 cents a gallon."
>
> The truth is that oil companies are making record profits because we are
> using a record amount of gas.  Interestingly enough, one of the 
> reasons, besides
> being stupid and greedy, is ethanol.  It takes a gallon and a half of ethanol
> to equal the energy of one gallon of gasoline.  So as more ethanol 
> is added to
> fhe fuel supply, the average mileage per gallon goes down and we buy 
> more fuel.
>
> But hype aside, how much do oil companies make in profit?  The overall profit
> for oil companies is 5.9 cents for every dollar of retail sales.  The average
> profit for all industries is 5.2 cents per dollar of sales.  But wait!  Oil
> companies make more money on fuel oil, lubricants, and oil derivitives for
> plastics than they do on gasoline.  The average oil company profit 
> on one gallon
> of gas is 10 cents.
>
> Let's suppose that the oil companies (that is, it's investors) chose to run
> the business as nonprofit.  How much better would you do if gas went 
> from it's
> current $3.15 a gallon to $3.05?
>
> But oil companies aren't nonprofit.  And this puts one really important
> reality on the table.  Oil companies are capitalists 
> enterprises.  That means oil
> is explored, mined, transported, refined, and retailed using someone else's
> money, someone else's risk, and not yours personally.  Under such an 
> arrangement
> people are entitled to a profit.  That money available to finance the oil
> industry competes with every other industry that wants that money 
> invested in its
> own business.  At the pump, you are outbidding all other industries for the
> money it takes to run the oil industries.
>
> When you shell out for gas at the pump, here is where the money goes:
>
>
> Price of crude oil -          53%
> Taxes -                          18%
> Dist & retailing                 9%
> Refining -                       20%
>
> Wait.  Even if the price of crude goes up, why should refining and
> distribution go up to match?  Because every step of the process to 
> get the oil from the
> ground to the pump itself uses oil.
>
> People, including congressional committees, have been looking into the notion
> of price gouging for a very long time and have not found evidence of it.  All
> the gouging palaver boils down to the sneaky suspicion of "Ah ... ya never
> know .... I bet they are making 50% or 75% profit on gas ... I just betcha!"
>
> The only thing you have in your control is your personal consumption which is
> not only the only thing that will make a difference to you personally, but it
> is the only thing, colletively applied, that will ever change world fuel
> problem.  If gas suddenly went to $5 a gallon this summer, which it 
> well may, we
> could save ALL that money back simply by cancelling just one trip to town a
> month.