Passing Gas to the Consumer

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/walter-brasch/56899/passing-gas-to-the-consumer

Passing Gas to the Consumer
Big Oil
by Walter Brasch | July 13, 2014 - 6:58am

Gas prices at the pump during the July 4th extended weekend were the highest they have been in six years. This, of course, has little to do with supply-and-demand economics. It has everything to do with supply-and-gouge profits.

Over the past decade, the five largest oil companies have earned more than $1 trillion in profits. Last year, the Big Five—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Shell—earned about $93 billion in profits. Their CEOs last year earned an average of about $20 million. Included within the profits is $2.4 billion in taxpayer subsidies because it’s hard to make a living when your hourly wage, assuming you work every hour of every day, is only $2,283.

“We have been subsidizing oil companies for a century. That’s long enough,” President Obama said more than a year ago. The Senate disagreed. Forty-three Republicans and four Democrats blocked the elimination of subsidies. Although the final vote was 51–47 to end the subsidies, a simple majority was not enough because the Republicans threatened a filibuster that would have required 60 votes to pass the bill. A Think Progress financial analysis revealed that the 47 senators who voted to continue subsidies received almost $23.6 million in career contributions from the oil and gas industry. In contrast, the 51 senators who had voted to repeal the subsidies received only about $5.9 million.

For a couple of decades, the oil industry blamed the Arabs for not pumping enough oil to export to the United States. But when the Arab oil cartel (of which the major U.S. oil companies have limited partnerships) decided to pump more oil, the Americans had to look elsewhere for their excuses. In rapid succession, they blamed Mexico, England, the Bermuda Triangle, polar bears who were lying about climate change so they could get more ice for their diet drinks, and infertile dinosaurs.

[Dustlawyer]

1. K&r!!! For a paltry 23.6 million they receive billions and billions and billions!

Man we are so F*cked up!

This is why we need to march/protest getting the money out of politics. From September 13th - November 4 (Election Day) we need to fight to get the money out of politics by instituting Publicly Funded Federal, State, and Local elections! We can require the TV and Radio stations to run the campaign ads as a public service for using the public airwaves under license. Shorten the campaign period and we should start having a return to Representative Democracy forth-with! Currently they only represent Donors such as these oil companies.

Bernie Sanders, Bill Moyers, Max Kaiser, Noam Chomsky, Cenk Ugar, and many more are starting to call for us to peacefully march/protest/fight to get the money out of politics. Why bother coming here to DU to gripe about the state of things if you are not willing to do something about it? You can spread the word on the internets, meet/talk to other groups fighting for various worthwhile causes that have been either caused or block because of the Big Donors controlling the show. What I am saying is please do what you can, thanks!

[progressoid]

2. Rec!