Should we start regulating the Oil Industry?

desandrews wrote:

In your example, we don't get gauged for electricity because of gov't regulation. That may be true but only because most electrical companies have no competition. They're basically a monopoly, that's the argument for regulation. Oil companies... we have ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Citgo, BP, etc. There's no monopoly, there's free market competition, that dictates prices will be as low as efficiently possible. OPEC may be a different story, but they're not within the US so we can't regulate them anyway. Although prices are going up, profit margins are relatively stable. Hell, Microsoft and Apple have larger margins, I don't think we should start talking about regulating them.

Also, didn't Jimmy Carter try this in the late 70s and all we got were long lines at the gas station because stores ran out of gas? Oh yeah, we got 55 mph speed limits out of that too.

i thought nixon made the 55 mph speed limit??

how are profit margins 'stable' when exxonmobil made the largest profits in corporate history last year??

El_Kabong wrote:

i thought nixon made the 55 mph speed limit??

how are profit margins 'stable' when exxonmobil made the largest profits in corporate history last year??

Tremendous difference between profit, and profit margin. The cost of doing business has increased dramatically the cost of storage has increased dramatically they aren't producing as much because of all the problems in the Gulf and the instability in the rest of the world. Their profit margins I believe is around 15 percent but I can't remember where I got that number. Last years price spike was due to limited supply, not greed, to keep demand down they raise the price, and it worked, storage space is still at a premium. As refineries get back on gasoline the price will go down again and stabilise for a short time yet again. If the demand goes down, the price will absolutely go down....kind of like with the music industry.

I think if I was going to be upset about obscene amounts of money and potential fraud I'd probably look to Wall Street before Exxon.


http://www.eia.doe.gov/ this site might be interesting for those interested.

Dustin51 wrote:

The analogy makes sense in the fact that we need gasoline the same way we need electricity.

"Regulate your own consumption" This is exactly why I used the electricity analogy.

Lot's of people have moved to bedroom communities in order to give their families a better life and a bigger living space. The house I grew up in was very middle class and both of my parents drove an hour each way to and from work so that me and my siblings could have a little more space and little better life.

How can you possibly expect people like that to regulate their use? What are supposed to do exactly? Not go to work?

Saying we need to make gas 20 dollars a gallon as someone else suggested is ridiculous. Every low to middle class family in every bedroom community in America would have to declare bankruptcy.

I agree that alternative fuels are important and need to be aggressively pursued. I also agree that the environment is a very important issue and we need to aggressively seek out ways to force changes in the behavior of our populous. I disagree that we should destroy the middle class to force these changes.

I also have serious doubts that the Oil industry is in such dire straights. They’re making huge profits which in of itself is not necessarily a bad thing but taking advantage of a necessity to do it is morally questionable at best.

however, what is their incentive to keep searching for new forms of that product or go to extrodinary lengths to get you that product if you force them to limit their earnings not based on the market?

Essentially companies close, and you get the same service as you do with most other government entities (shitty to awful)

The Free Market is absolutely the best and most fair way to distribute resources. The problem is when companies try to take advantage of their freedom, collude and change the laws and bend the rules of the free market. (see lobbiests etc.)

even flow? wrote:

The exact same thing that keeps them from finding a new and improved way to make things run. Their profit! There is no incentive for them to bring anything new to the table until they can control and profit huge off of it. My god, the sun has been around longer than oil and how well do we use that. Oh yeah, anybody can do it. So we won't research it to well (maybe) and we will charge an arm and a leg to use something that is free. Just check out that thread from a week ago about the people using the alternative fuel and having the feds jump all over them. Money, money, money, over humans being human.

yeah, absolutely true. People making steady income absolutely deplore change.

It's one reason I find these energy hearings with automakers hilarious....

Big guys from detroit talk about efficiency killing their profits, meanwhile Toyota is right there going....uh? Are you mental? We are kicking ass? (and selling technology to Chevy and Ford all the while)

It's a very complicated hullabaloo without one simple solution.

One thing for sure is that the US Oil Companies, Automakers and the government have absolutely not done anything close to the work they should have been doing on alternative fuels. The money was good so they got slack on thier research. (same thing happened to Delta between the 80's and now) When leadership lacks vision, we've got problems.

Everybody should be on the conservation band wagon. I so hope solar collectors can get more cost effective and efficient in the comming years. Ok, so can we ask people do go cold turkey....no. But come on, turn your freaking lights out, turn your AC up and your heat down, buy some freaking caulk, walk to the pool, walk to your friends, house, ride a bike to the store.... buy CFL's, use free solar energy to heat your water...we haven't even approached conservation and recycling like we should in this country and our public transportation is largely untapped in many areas.

Conservation is balls easy, for whatever reason my country is slow to catch on.

That and if someone finds a way to run on french fry oil...that's just damn cool ok. It's almost ironic. How could literally running on fat be unamerican?