P Jimmy’s Big Oil Extravaganza
Two whole hours on the oil industry? And the lines were lit up the whole time! Americans are pissed, at their government and at the big oil companies. I can’t help noting that we get what we deserve as long as we accept a system that encourages those who amass wealth to exploit the rest of us. Until we change the system, we can’t really expect these goons to stop working it, can we?
Here’s a list of automobile fuel-efficiency pointers Pete read on the air. I tried for a little while to verify caller Ronnie’s advice about “fresh gasoline” being more efficient than the allegedly stale gas allegedly found at mom-and-pop gas stations. I couldn’t find anything backing that up, so if you find something about it, post a link.
Getting deeper into the politics, here’s an article I worked on a couple years ago about gas price manipulation by the oil companies. And here’s an article with links to the internal memos talking about how they can make gas prices go up.
How does that “liberal” mainstream media handle the issue? Most of the articles I’ve seen on today’s hearings with Big Oil executives just parrot what the executives said, relaying their excuses. Sure, they talk about how badly gas prices are hurting us all, but they don’t seem interested in challenging any of the bullshit the witnesses spewed to excuse their behavior. Here’s the ABC News article on the matter, called “Oil Execs Grilled Over High Prices.” See if you can find the grilling, then compare it to the cry-baby whining by the witnesses about how they need to keep reinvesting their profits so they can keep making mind-boggling profits.
I may have been a little obtuse. I said “fresh”, but I didn’t mean fresh-squeezed. Older stations or places with older storage systems have a tendency to collect trash and condensation. Bad gas will definitely not burn efficiently.
The oil companies profit is 10%? Really??? Exxon/Mobil reported a 10.71 Billion Dollar profit for the 4th quarter of 2007. So their costs were in the neighborhood of 100 Billion dollars? Really??? I find that hard to believe…
Big Oil reported $123 billion in 2007. Currently at About $111.00 a barrel, and $3.27 per gallon a 42 gallons barrel is $2.64 per gallon, so a profit of .65 per gallon or $27.30 per barrel. Typically I’d say not much. But, with millions of barrels used a day thats 27 million in profits a day. Also the $27.30 is 7% higher then last year this time, with no refinery updates or new refineries in 30 years please explain to me the rising cost at such a rapid rate? On the show today (4/1) the topic of how much a fuel store onwer makes per gallon, maybe 9 cents per gallon was mentioned. Ok, an empty 16 gallon tank made that owner thats a profit of $1.44. Now add in the credit card user fees the station makes to have the credit card machine, I have been told its upward to $10,000.00 a year, I could very well be misinformed. That’s $27.40 per day to have that machine, at $1.44 profit per 16 gallon tank that’s 20 fill ups. Also factor in evaporation rate. But honestly, they don’t make 9 cents in prifits, typically only a few cents, so with the same math, lets say 4 cents, which I think is high, thats now over 40 fill ups per day to pay a credit card company fee. And as neighboring gas station fued, the profits go down. So next time you fill up, buy a candy bar and bottle of water, thats where the real profits in a convience store are.
The following links will provide where I got my information from, so Brian and everybody this will save you research time! Sorry its from the same source.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23777279/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23904590/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23901712
Oh yeah, Ronnie is accurate, gas that sits in an underground tank too long does get “old”, fresher refuels in the station holding tanks is better fuel for your car. Fresher fuel is cleaner, which keeps your cars fuel filter clean (yup, Pete, cars have fuel filters!) as well as the fuel lines and motor. Clean motors and filters improve fuel milage.
Chad, their profit margin is 10%. Don’t forget this margin is calculated when considering that they have to buy their oil (they don’t simply get it for free).
Looking at Exxon/Mobil’s financials,
In 2007 they reported revenue of $372.824 billion. After taking out costs of goods sold (COGS), SG&A, and some others, their EBITDA was $69,905 billion. They wrote down $12.25 billion in depreciation (from machinery). After adding back in other earnings from other sources, they made $71.479 billion. After taking out $29.864B in income tax and $1.005B in minority interest, They reported a net income of $40.610 billion.
With that said, they had a 10.89% profit margin last year.
Going through the same math with Microsoft, they reported a net income of $14.065B with revenues totalling $51.122B. A profit margin of 27.5%
Exxon/Mobil did 729% of the total business Microsoft did. They only profited 289% more though!?
Nowadays, one drive off could take all the profits from a smaller gas station for an entire day. $50 in gas is equal to 1250 gallons earning 4 cents per gallon.
Thank you John from Cleveland, you said it in more in detail then what I could have!
It’s because of the queen of the netherlands and the bilderburg group. They’re jockeying for 6dollar/gallon gas this year. One comment at this year’s Bilderberg meeting: “stupid Americans, they deserve their fate”
when i turn my hat around,i’m like a machine but i don’t need gas.
The old gas vs new gas argument may be valid: as it was pointed out, as gas sits in station tanks it collect sediments and condensation. To me that means it lowers the BTU of gas, therefore making it not as efficien to burn. Gas in summer has more BTUs then gas in the winter, and it also differs from batch to batch, from which refinerery it was refined, the additives each brand adds (Exxon I think adds a few, as well as some of the larger oil companies). In theory, even though winter gas has less BTUs, cold winter air is more dense, therefore more is sucked into the engine, when the spark plug ignites the air/fuel mixture, the air expands at a larger volume, increasing fuel economy. However, since we have a tendency to use the heater, the extra drag on the belts lessens fuel economy, so it all goes out the window.
All this talk about the high prices is nice, but when are we going to come up with alternative fuels? I know we need to fight one battle at a time, but the war rages on and time is ticking.
For those of you who don’t know, BTUs are British Thermal Units, which is the manner used to measure energy stored in gas, and many other things. A BTU is defined as the amount of heat requierd to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water 1 degree fahrenheit.
Martin, I like what you have here.
Don’t forget that most people drive with the AC on full blast in the summer. I believe that the drag on the serpentine belt is higher on the ac compressor than the heating element.
Another point I was trying to make with the Microsoft thing… we are getting completely pounded with the price of their products. We do have alternatives. We just seem to not care!!! Why?!?!?!?
John, true about the belt, but in the winter when the defroster is on the AC compressor kicks on to blow dry air into the windshield to keep it from fogging, therefore more drag. Windows down will also increase the coefficient drag on vehicles, making the engine work harder to maintain speed at any given time.
Microsoft: all of my computers have Microsoft products, though I have yet to purchase anything directly from them. Is the majority of their income through sales to computer manufaturers or consumers like us?
I forgot to mention, we do have a choice with Microsoft. There have been attempts made at other operating systems, most have failed. There’s always Apple computers, their operating system is different yet more user friendly, so I’ve heard, and not as prone to viruses like Microsoft is, so you can forward all those “you have to forward to 20 of your closest friends” emails and not get hit by some cocksucker in Germany or some other country in Euroasia who is trying to get his name out as the world’s best virus applicant; sitting in a dimmly lit closet size room, porno mags strown throughout the fake tile floor with last week’s meals still fermenting as he jacks off one more time, spilling his never-touched-vagina seed on day old pizza because he has just created one more virus to show us all he exists.
Yes, I would love a different operating system. We can always go back to DOS.
The AS/400 is still around, and has been since the 60s or 70s.
^^^^ um… wow…. yuck….
I loved hearing from Steve again…that guy should be a public speaker. I found myself shouting “Fuck YEAH!” about once every other minute while he was ranting. DAMN I love a good rant!
It’s nice to see a topic we can all stand together on. Whatever background or political affiliation you might have, the price of gas is a universal that we can all agree is fucking bullshit.
I dont think anyone disagrees that the cost of gas is insane.
I have been working on something on the side about how our nation sprawled out and became what it is because of the cheap cost of gas. The data right now is very interesting. Essentially, we grew because we could afford to travel into town from 20 miles away for work. People all want their own piece of the American dream (house, kids, dog). You can’t get it when you live in a side-by-side or a tenement.
Now we are in a situation where the travel costs are getting prohibitive. If the current trend continues, we may see a new urban revival. People may literally be forced to live near cities once more!?
OKAY WATCH THIS:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/04/02/roberts.gas.gauge.cnn
don’t like microsoft? use ubuntu linux it’s free. it’s very good, it can be downloaded and burned to disc for free, and most all programs for it are free. Much like apple(apple is just a flavor of unix) it cannot be affected by viruses.
Another point on the oil: was I the only one to notice that after incentives for making progress on producing fuel efficient cars was offered by the government, many car companies only produced cars that weren’t very efficient so the next year making progress would be easy. What happened to the 3 cylinder geo metro that got 50mpg? They where pretty good cars too.
You are all neglecting something obvious, and I’m not sure why…
In a normal, free market economy, if there wasn’t a “fix” in, gas companies would naturally start to lower their costs. Yes, it would reduce their profit from 10% to 9% or 8% but that’s what they would need to do to draw in customers. This isn’t a FREE market because we have NO alternatives! People can’t just up and stay home, they HAVE to go to work and most of them don’t have public transportation alternatives.
So, what incentive would the gas companies have to lower their prices and compete for customers, even if they weren’t price fixing (which they absolutely are, you can check out www.gregpalast.com for details).
As per usual, Americans wake up on the day of the test and realized that they haven’t gone to class all semester and have no clue what the hell is going on. But they want answers and solutions NOW.
Well… tough shit! We were all too lazy to press our reps to do something about this over the last 50 years and now that it’s starting to really hurt we want mommy to fix it. Sadly, no matter what happens, we’re going to have to suffer for a while. However, we can at least demand that they stop giving them tax breaks and/or attach those tax breaks to specific dollar amounts in matched funds that would go towards un-affiliated R&D of products that get us off the dependance of oil.
A large group of american’s insist on driving 8,000 pound SUVs to work. One driver and no passengers. As long as a large segment of this society insist on driving the biggest MF tanks on the planet we are getting what we deserve. How many of us know I woman that drives a suburban 40miles one way to work daily?
Extracting hydrocarbons from coal was a process that the Nazis looked at way back when, and I think the US looked into it as well, but it was abandoned due to the cost factor. Since we are all educated, we all know what hydrocarbons are, correct? Just in case, they are basically fossil fuels, such as gas and propane and such. Now then, let’s look at that process again. . . better yet, let’s look at hydro-powered cars that run on compressed fluids as the main drive system
so it’s a long watch, but here it is.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1070329053600562261
most of our countries problems are in fact linked with money.
be careful about reporting about this, don’t try to take it into the endzone, just take it a few yards, and get a down.
I just thought I’d add that I don’t align my views with alex jones concerning climate change. I do believe that the golbal tax is dangerous, and somewhat fraudulent.
why don’t governments make a carbon tax for burning coal? why just oil?
The real irony is that We’re supposed to feel guilty for driving our cars right? well I have a problem with that because my ford taurus puts out about 6 tons of co2 per year while 1 coal fired powerplant produces about the same as 1/2 a million times that amount.
(sidenote: I came up with the figures above from fueleconomy.gov and cross referencing a few different sites for an average of annual c02 production of a coal fired powerplant)
Why is it that the responsibility falls on the shoulders of us, the people who have no money or time to do anything about it. All we can do is go into debt buying more efficient products because we are smart enough to figure out that a thicker atmosphere holds heat.
Why us? Why not the people with nearly unlimited resources AND the deeds to the very entities that pollute on a grand scale.
Another point: do the governmental and financial leaders of the world really expect billions of people to come to a concencus about this? Isn’t it easier to regulate a few thousand powerplants than it is to change the minds of a few billion people? What is their motivation? do they really care about climate change? or do they have some alternate motivation?
The problem is that the rich don’t care enough to take down old technology that pollutes and build new plants that don’t pollute. If I where them I think it would be tempting to take the attitude of: “well, they say we’re running out of fossil fuels before too long, so why not wait until we’re forced to do something about it?(and make lots of money in the process)”
to sum it up, I do believe in human induced climate change. I just think that smokestacks are much worse than and more easily shut down than cars.
Is it possible that the prices of fuel reflect one last push by Pres. Bush? Maybe he and Haliburton are trying to ensure fat pockets after Bush leaves office. Also, the oil companies fear that if Sen. CLinton gets the nomination, then, God forbid, wins the election, she has made crystal clear her intentions to "take those profits" from Big Oil and re-distribute them.
No president ever has to worry about money for as long as they live. They get a stipend, secret service, and earn a TON when it comes to private speaking appearances.
Remember that oil prices are the ones going up… Its not like Oil is still $45 a barrel and they are jacking the gasoline costs on you. Who do you think is getting all the money for the oil? Um, can you say that Sheik who built an indoor ski slope in the desert?
mike in GA Reply:
May 1st, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Well said John, well said. It is embarrassing that some of the worst abomanations of leaders that we have ever had get protection on the tax-payer’s back. Particular ones should be VERY grateful for this if they are still sucking air! There are some miserable, dipicable mother-fuckers walking around with protection from secret-service. I wouldn’t dare embelish, but some of our past "leaders" are MUCH more disappointing than the current administration. It still grates on my nerves daily that when the press refers to our President, they call him "Mr. Bush" while referring to Slick Willy as "President Clinton". WTF? I would love to see how the 1st First Husband would handle the position, but doubt thst I will have the chance with the Clinton hopeful. I am not a fan of any of the current choices. I am a card-carrying Republican, but not a Conservative, go figure. Don’t consider myself a Liberal either. We have to move on and get these two parties OUT. I have just realized that I am off subject, and simply ranting now. But, my point was this. With the threat of taking profits from Big Oil, comes the threat of "sticking" stock-holders of said commodity. Many of these stock-holders are retired school-teachers, COPs, fire-fighters, and other "blue-collar" bretheren that deserve to enjoy the profits of their investments. I, by the way, am not one.
I really should take my own advice on proof-reading. I apologize for the errors.
Mike, the "retired school-teachers, COPs, fire-fighters, and other "blue-collar" bretheren that deserve to enjoy the profits of their investments" are doing just that.
The sheer amount of money that was invested by their pensions, stock funds, 401ks, etc, ALL put money into Big Gasoline. Don’t convince yourself that they are not reaping any rewards.
Why not yell at the people who managed their portfolios for them? Any good financial advisor could’ve seen this coming. This is why I manage my own 401k, my wife’s 401k, and our mutual funds. You’d be surprised that you can do just as well as people you pay the bucks to make these decisions. Buy low, sell high, and don’t get on a fad trend like precious metals or dotcomms.
(STARTING A NEW TREND) I got 2 funny words to type in below "Mounting Hebrew"
mike in GA Reply:
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:54 am
John, Good points all. I think the gist of what you are saying is, pardon the cliche, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The only thing that I question, when you say "precious metals", have you seen the increas in gold? Gold has doubled since 2000. Also, gold will never be "worthless" as are many of the dotcomms you menioned. Mounting Hebrew LOL! Take care John.
Dont invest in precious metal unless you know 100% what you are doing. Always get into a mutual fund that also invests in other metals to compensate. Yes, Gold peaked earlier this year at 1000 per ounce but is 15% off that high.