Do the record profits in the oil industry make sense?

Gas prices have gone over $3.00 a gallon for most of us, and seem to rise whenever there is an anticipated emergency, whether it actually happens or not. I've long been an advocate of the "does it make sense theory” and prices being raised for emergencies that never actually happened, DOES NOT, at least to me.

Meanwhile, billions of our dollars and human resources (young men and women) are being used to protect the area, where a lot of our oil comes from.

I've never figured out why our tax dollars are being used (seemingly without charge) to protect a few people, who have a lot of money to throw around. All we seem to get in return is higher prices, and dangerous people, we need to protect ourselves from.

Most of the terrorists in the 9-11 attacks were not from Afghanistan, which has little oil. In fact, most of them, including the mastermind still at large; come from one of these countries, using our resources to protect it.

It costs us a lot of money, and our brave young men and women to provide them protection. To me, it would make sense that those, who are enjoying our protection, showed their appreciation a little more.

But all our oil doesn’t necessarily come from these foreign lands we are paying to protect. Is there a common denominator to all this? The oil companies are sharing in the RECORD profit taking, also. These companies are largely owned by Americans, and other Westerners.

If the oil industry is so prone to dangers, it doesn't make sense that they are making more money than anytime in history? Based on their record profits, it doesn't seem to be hitting their bottom lines.

It does seem to be hitting the bottom lines of everyday American households, as well as, other industries, which will have to pass the costs off to everyone in the form of higher prices.

Recently, Walmart announced their sales are going down because people don't have as much disposable income to spend. A lot of everyday Americans shop at Walmart. I'm using Walmart as an example, but they aren't the only large business beginning to see this trend.

Wikipedia mentions this in their analysis of oil price increases in the past few years, here.

Personally, I'm an advocate of getting rid of the industry by exploring alternative energy sources, but until we get there, perhaps the little guy should get a fair deal?

The People's E-Mail network is sponsoring a drive to let our legislators and newspapers know that it's time to conduct an unbiased investigation to determine if their is any foul play connected with the current pricing structure, which is making a few people very rich.

John Edwards, a presidential candidate, has also called for an investigation of the industry. AP story, courtesy of Yahoo News, here.

It would be nice to see him get some support on this, preferably of the bipartisan type. Maybe it's time to make sense of a situation of a phenomenon that DOES NOT to a lot of us?

The way to do that is to investigate the problem, or discover the truth. If there is no fraud, then the oil industry should have nothing to fear.

You can let your elected representatives and local press know how you feel about this, here.

Are we being gouged with hot gas?

Gas prices seem to keep going up, too frequently. According to ABC, buying gas could even be more expensive than what we see posted at the pump:

Consumers are feeling the pain at the pump, as gas prices have risen for nine straight weeks.

Now lawsuits around the country claim drivers are being ripped off in a gas gouge they can't even see.

There are at least nine lawsuits pending that claim some gas stations are padding their profits by selling warm gasoline.

According to the article, the cost impact of this might be:

An investigation by the Kansas City Star newspaper found that American drivers may overpay $2.3 billion a year, with drivers in warm states like California hit the hardest.

ABC News story, here.

Of course, the industry (petroleum) is arguing these statistics.

You can e-report suspected gas gouging to the DOE (Department of Energy) by linking, here.

DOE states that:

All complaints registered with the Department of Energy will be collated and transmitted to the Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Department of Justice and individual State Attorneys General for investigation and prosecution where appropriate.

Unfortunately, no one has ever been able to prove the oil companies were gouging consumers.

Still, the way they raise prices doesn't make a lot of sense to a layman like myself?

Meanwhile Reuters is reporting:

Occidental Petroleum's (OXY) chairman and chief executive took in more than $400 million in compensation last year, the company said in a filing, one of the biggest single-year payouts in U.S. corporate history.

Reuters story (courtesy of USA Today), here.