YES! More raping of the earth for a gross pollutant! Who's gonna prosper most out of this? who's gonna PROFIT most out of this?

Every single person who uses oil.

KIS,

yes. no. yes.

Do you have a reasonable point?

&heellip; Higher Gas Prices Opening The Door For Deeper Oil Exploration In North Dakota By Rob on October 30, 2005 at 9:36 pm BISMARCK – Oilmen have known for decades that a thin layer of dense rock nearly two miles beneath the surface in western North Dakota holds millions of barrels of oil. &heellip;

…sad you don't see it that way. Parties in the aisles decide what gets things done, right right…

Oil jobs used to be the lifeblood of the Wyoming, Montana, and Dakota's middle class. When the oil prices fell, the jobs went over seas to Saudi Arabia and all the former middle class oil field workers (my dad included) we relegated to either leaving Montana, Wyo, etc., or to living in poverty.

Exxon Mobil is making record profits due to high prices, but prices are not simply set by the oil companies. They are set in very large part by the commodities market, the exchanges, and demand factors. How can you have such a naive view of any industry as to assume that oil suppliers do not have competition or any economic forces that keep them in check?

The reason profits are at record levels is that despite $3.00 per gallon gasoline, American consumers will still continue to buy gasoline for their SUV's. And the Chinese and Indian economies still need gas as do the economies of every other industrial nation.

So is the solution to increase prices more or increase taxes? No matter how hard the left tries, they cannot reduce the world's desire to drive cars and transport goods in trucks and by train. What is your solution–electric cars that rely on coal burning power plants to fuel? Maybe hydrogen cars that rely on coal burning power plants to perform the electrolysis to create the hydrogen to run. Or we could build a new nuclear power plant in say the last 30 years in the US. Short of nuclear power, wind and solar energy ain't doin' much. We are running short on electricity too, and the Sierra Club wants to drain most hydroelectric facilities. They sure have some good ideas on the Green left don't they.

Right on, Justin. The regulation also creates a hostile atmosphere here in the US, thus giving the companies more incentive to outsource. Think about it: most foreign labor has always been cheaper than US labor, but since US workers are far more productive, most companies prefer to remain in the US, unless forced out by oppressive and insane regulations.
Usually, people who work for a company fail to appreciate how much it cost to set up the conditions for their employment. In the end, it is all driven by the demands of a free people making free choices. That's the magic.

Holy moly, you all fail Economics 1. Do you know how much the parent companies profit during these times of "crisis"? You're not talking about a pseudo-profit…it's real money in the billions OVER cost EVERY year. They have teams of guys telling them where every penny they spend goes and how many more will come back from where. You treat a resource that the nation is dependent on like it's a generic commodity. When the government starts putting hundreds of billions of dollars into alternative fuels, then we can talk about the waning days of gasoline and the competition that ensued, but until then they are profit monsters with a monopoly on our way of life. People gotta work.

Here is the irony of KIS's comments. He recognizes that Research and Development of a new product costs hundreds of billions of dollars. So does discovering new oil fields. Maybe not hundreds of billions, but some guy doesn't just decide, let's drill a well here and find out what is under the ground. And Exxon Mobil and many others invested billions to discover the oil they are producing.

Second point. Say the Government subsidizes GM and Ford to build the next car that runs on lawn clippings and dog crap. The government gives Ford and GM $100B to do it and Ford and GM produce a new car that you fill up with the grass from your lawn mower. Who does the profit belong to? Does GM or Ford get to keep all the profit? What about the World Trade Organization dispute that arises because the Japanese and German car companies cry foul because the US Government is illegally subsidizing the R&D for Ford and GM. You think Japan and Germany might block entry of new cars that are built with huge government subsidies in the US? I point you no further than the Boeing versus Airbus dispute to get your answer.

So that means that the big car companies would have to make an investment of hundreds of billions of dollars into future technologies and sacrifice spending the R&D money on things that have an immediate return on investment like making today's cars safer.

Final point is that KIS forgets the billions that Ford stands to lose due to the combination of liability for exploding police cars and tire incidents on Ford Exporers. Oh yeah, and the fact that they are losing tons of money due to their financial arms having to fund the 0% interest options.

KIS has the right idea though. Have the government fund electric and hydrogen powered cars that require electric generation (and about half of the US's electric generation is done by coal that also produces pollution) to charge the batteries or to produce the hydrogen. Better yet, to power the cars that the government invests hundreds of billions into building that run on hydrogen or electricity, let's have the government subsidize wind energy or build gigantic solar panels too.

KIS, the right answer is for the government you describe to simply pay all of us to stay home and not drive at all. If I didn't have to go to work everyday to earn a living because the government gave me a check, I wouldn't generate nearly as much pollution or depend nearly as much on oil. Let's spend the hundreds of billions on that.

And now we know why I don't vote Democrat.

Carl B. holier than thou holier than marty get a grip keep it simple said, When the government starts putting hundreds of billions of dollars into alternative fuels, then we can talk about the waning days of gasoline and the competition that ensued…

Only the government?

…but until then they are profit monsters with a monopoly on our way of life.

Could you explain?

Robert, you are correct. So let's play investors for a second–

What is the return on investment for investing $100B of my tax dollars? Where do we get a return from? All I hear is "Well, we will be less dependant on foreign oil and the earth will be cleaner." For $100B.

Try this on for size:

We don't invest a damn thing. We open our oil fields to drilling, cut regulations on refineries and nuclear power, and empower our companies to start opening up new reserves that they have found. What is the ROI on that? Thousands and tens of thousands of new high paying jobs in the drilling industry that by their very nature cannot be outsourced. Billions in new tax revenue from the sales and profits of the companies. Billions in new income tax revenue from the investors and employees of these companies. And given that new technologies are infinitely more environmentally sound than the decades old ones that we are currently using, a cleaner environment.

And guess what Exxon Mobil making $10B in profit for the 3rd Qtr means for the rest of us– they pay corporate income income taxes. That means that us poor tax payers have several billion more dollars in the coffers to pay for the mistakes of the ill conceived medicare and Social Security system that is falling apart. KIS's idea is to cut our revenues from companies like Exxon Mobil. Check this link:

http://ir.exxonmobil.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=115024&a…

This is their earnings report for 3rd Qtr. Notice that through nine months this year, Exxon Mobil has paid over $70B–NO JOKE–in taxes. $70 BILLION F-ING DOLLARS IN TAXES. They have paid over $16B in US Income Taxes alone. That does not count all of the other taxes and regulations they have to deal with. If you know how to read an Income Statement, you might notice that these evil Oil Companies happen to pay far more than their share. So far this year, the company has earned $25B in after tax profits, but paid $16B in taxes.

Tell me how transferring billions of dollars from the private sector to the public sector can ever solve any economic problem? It would seem to me that such transfers are the problem.

…instantly popping to mind is canada's driver insurance program that was to be public. It was gonna save everybody money, but private US companies sued to strike public insurance down or be compensated by the state for the revenue they would lose from inability to compete with incredibly low public prices. Everybody was to pay something like $6/month for full public coverage. Whaddya say? Lots of info on it and one of many examples I'm sure, which brings us back to bowing down to the gas gods. Petroleum does not have to be central to our daily lives. The government needs to accomodate alternative energy's need to succeed, just as it has been fighting tooth and nail to pander the oil and auto market.

I can't imagine why oil hasn't been dislodged from its place in the market.

think a little harder. How do you spend your day? how do most people spend their days? What are you gonna do tomorrow, write a letter and hope the government puts the brakes on the runnaway gas truck? Vote? Riot? How you gonna pay your bills in the mean time? Business as usual is the corporate govt's best weapon…people gotta work, very wealthy people worry about their money/lifestyle, very poor people worry about keeping it together…the world keeps on turning.

The people who want to f*ck us with high taxes to advance their radical agendas are a small special interest group. They deserve nothing in this society, since they only care about their own kind, and not the majority of us. They are arrogant elitists who think we can't run our own lives, so they will force us to live as they do.

You know, if gas prices are hurting Americans so bad, I have some options:

1. Sell your house and move closer to work.
2. Move out of your apartment and move closer to work.
3. Move to another city with better mass transportation.
4. Ride the tax payer funded boondoggle Mass Transporation systems that we all paid out the ass to build that was supposed to be the cure for this, yet never get used.
5. Quit your job and find one closer to home.
6. Work with your employer to work 4×10 or to telecommute 1 day per week.
7. Buy a more fuel efficient car. My Jetta gets 30+ miles to the gallon. (Actually my wife's car, I still have an SUV that gets like 16, but we drive it a lot less)

What is your short term answer KIS? Lower gas taxes? Then who pays for the freeways? Subsidies for poor folks to pay for their gas? Then it discourages them from using Mass Transit, car pooling, or moving. How about we tax employers for making their employees drive to work? That is the best idea yet, until your job goes to India because the employer cannot afford the tax burden.

What part of market forces do you not understand? There are dozens of alternatives to cut gas prices readily available. It is simply that people would rather pay higher prices than use mass transporation, move, carpool, change jobs, or alter their lives. And you know what, if you build an 80 horsepower compact sedan that gets 70 miles to the gallon, my ass isn't gonna buy one. Because F- you, F- the ozone, F- the whales, and someone else can save the damn earth. I am an American and I like my car big, heavy, safe, and am willing to pay for it.

Why aren't people clammoring to ride Mass Transit with these $3.00 gas prices? That was the left's last round of cures for fixing the environment.