Make Oil a Public Utility

[babylonsister]

Make Oil a Public Utility
by Ed Ludwig


The furious moans and groans about gasoline and heating oil prices have been met with a public-be-damned attitude from the oil industry — and nothing is being done to rectify the problem. Prices continue to sky-rocket.

Why not designate oil companies as public utilities?

A public utility has been defined as “a business that provides an everyday necessity to the public at large” — such as water, electricity, natural gas, telephone service, transportation, cable TV and other essentials.

Because of the need for and dependence on these commodities and products, the business of supplying them is readily subject to abuse. Without regulation, price gouging can become rampant in a time of great demand and economic turmoil, such as this.

A public utility regulated by the state or federal government, or the two working together, is entitled to charge reasonable rates for its products and services. It also is entitled to earn a reasonable profit. But that’s far less than what Big Oil is making. Public utilities are corporations that distribute dividends to their shareholders amounting to perhaps 5 percent a year of the stock’s value.

Oil energy fits squarely into the criteria for a public utility. How can it be distinguished from electricity and natural gas? It can’t be. But right now, it’s a political “untouchable.”

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/24/7863/