"Big Oil" vs "Big Bureaucracy"
When politicians and their standard bearers, the mainstream media, speak of "obscene" profits by the oil industry they invariably frame their argument in terms of dollars. Lots of dollars. Billions of dollars. But, as a percentage of gross income, how much do the oil companies actually take in? For that matter, how much does the federal government take in from the same gallon of gasoline?
Liberal Democrats (which is virtually all Democrats, anymore), the media, and RINO Republicans love to trot out quarterly earnings statements from the oil companies to "prove" how much the "eeevil" oil barons are screwing you. But the fact is this: Oil companies make far less, as a percentage of gross, than most other industries. The take in a lot of dollars because they are multi-national companies which do business all over the world. And, the sell a lot of their product. But their total margin at the end of the day is only 5.7 cents for every dollar of gas pumped - or 22.8 cents at $4 a gallon. Compare that to the 56 cents that the federal government confiscates from each gallon sold, of which they have zero impact in getting the fuel into your gas tank. The government does NOT: find the oil, drill for the oil, pay for the oil, ship the oil, refine the oil, or deliver the gas to market. It does Zip. Zero, Nada. Yet the federal government collects 14% off the top in excise taxes alone. This does not include state or federal sales taxes. The only thing that government contributes is higher prices through taxes, and a bureaucratic minefield of insane regulations on where to drill, when to drill, how much who can drill and God knows what else. Add to this the fact that the government and environmental groups have stood in the way of companies building any new oil refineries since the 1970's, creating a virtual cap on the amount of gas that can be refined, artificially affecting the supply component of supply and demand.
Finally, the big oil executives do not own the oil companies. This is the impression that those in the media and grandstanding politicians want the public to believe. They bring the CEO's before Congress to grill them in hearings (media circus's to allow politicians to show us how much they "care"), and hold investigations into price gouging by the oil companies (which in every instance has exonerated the oil companies). The truth is that the public own the vast majority of the oil companies, through 4011K's, mutual funds and individual stock investors.
If you are upset with high gas prices, maybe it's time to get upset with "Big Bureaucracy".
Thursday, May 26, 2011
By Penny Starr
(CNSNews.com) -- Armed with a Power Point presentation to illustrate the state of American energy, John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute (API), said the majority of “big oil” and natural gas ownership is in good hands – the hands of the American people.
According to a report published in 2007 by Sonecon, an economic advisory firm that analyses U.S. markets and public policy, corporate management owns only 1.5 percent of the U.S. oil and natural gas industry.
READ MORE HERE---> http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/who-owns-big-oil-millions-american-inves
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