Shell reports record profits

OK, yes, you won't die without gas. However, it is fairly unreasonable for an average person to live their everyday life without it.

We can all change our habits and do what we can to reduce the amount we use, but the bottom line is, we need it, and oil companies are taking advantage of that fact.

I'm not at all saying oil companies shouldn't be making a profit. They are a business and they're in it to make money. However, while they turn record profits and the price of gas keeps going up, they're hurting the economy of the entire nation.

 

True, but myriad oil-company todies continues to run the Executive and Judicial.

 

As long as I see people circling parking lots like vultures because they refuse to park further away and walk 100 feet to the store, I know America is nowhere near close to even attempting to save gasoline use.

 

As I was saying . . . a craven whore, of epic proportions.

We well-realize rising Asian powers have stepped up worldwide demand. But if the GOP thinks the economy's going to recover soon, given this pressure (won't be long before $4, and God help us, after that) and our Interstate Highway System-dictated population distribution, they're . . . well, hell, we already knew they were THAT.

 

Why SHOULDN'T we drill in ANWR?

 

Which has nothing to do with who is running Congress. They can find time to crawl up Clemens' ass with a microscope but they can't look into this?

 

I was speaking to what alternatives there are to using oil/gas, and simply put, there are none that are viable right now, as First Down said.

Using an alternative to driving one or two days a week is a good idea (I'm going to be able to ride my bike to work even more often in a couple weeks when I move five minutes from my office -- then I can ride even on game days and just ride home to pick up my car). I just don't see enough people doing it to have a measurable impact on the gas companies.

 

Jesus, haven't you learned anything? It doesn't matter how much oil is out there, prices are going to be high. Yes, you might find large amounts of oil in Alaska (you might not). So what? The price drops from $3.75 to $3.25 and six months later we're back where we started.

And then what?

 

And that isn't the oil companies' fault. Look, I hate the high gas prices as much as anybody. I drive 40 miles round trip in Beltway traffic to work every day. But I made the choice, just like we as a society have made choices that are now coming back to haunt us. Forcing companies to cut gas prices, as much as I would like it, amounts to a bailout for our own excesses.

By the way, out of curiosity I checked Google Finance and found that Exxon's margin has actually gotten slimmer in each of the last three quarters.

 

So because we might be wrong, we shouldn't try? We shouldn't drill for oil where we know it can be found in our own country? We should continue to be at the mercy of OPEC?

Yeah, that'll solve the fucking problem.

If it won't make a difference, then neither will opening the strategic petroleum reserve or doing away with the federal gas tax. But that doesn't stop people from suggesting those ideas.

Hell Chuck Schumer's been screaming about the SPR for about three years now even though it won't make a difference.

 

I would love to be able to ride my bike to work everyday. Unfortunately I live in Urban Sprawlsville, far below the Mason-Dixon line, so the ride would not only take over an hour, but also leave me smelling like a hobo upon my arrival from all the sweat.

 

We're not at the mercy of OPEC.

This may come as a shock to a lot of people, but 70 percent of our oil use comes from . . . NORTH AMERICA (USA, Canada, Mexico).

And this may also come as a shock.

When you buy a gallon of gasoline . . .

Exxon makes 6-7 cents

Federal government makes 18.4 cents

State government makes more than 30 cents

What incentive does government have to curb demand, when high demand is so profitable to them?