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High gas prices


NvBoarder

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Fortune 500 companies

1. Wal-Mart Stores

2. Exxon Mobil $40 million in profit

3. Chevron $18 million in profit

4. General Motors

5. ConocoPhillips $11.5 million in profit

6. General Electric

7. Ford Motor

8. Citigroup

9. Bank of America Corp.

10. AT&T

11. Berkshire Hathaway

12. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

13. American International Group

14. Hewlett-Packard

15. International Business Machines

16. Valero Energy

17. Verizon Communications

18. McKesson

19. Cardinal Health

20. Goldman Sachs Group

Tell me again why the gas prices are so high. I am oaky with companies making a profit but the gas companies are in the top five!!! Mad.gif

Complete Story

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/artic...863/Fortune-500

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Lately I've heard a lot of people say that if a large number of people don't buy gas from Mobile stations, it will eventually change the price of gas. This is because Mobil is the largest, and would have the largest impact nationwide. If nobody is buying from them, then they have to lower their prices. If they lower their prices then everyone else will have to also to stay competitive. But let's be real here, they can afford to lose some gas sales, and if this did work, it would only stay that way for a very short period of time. As soon as they lower their price, everyone buys gas from them again and everything is back the way it was.

I wish someone would do something about this!! Mad.gif

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Fortune 500 companies

1. Wal-Mart Stores

2. Exxon Mobil $40 million in profit

3. Chevron $18 million in profit

4. General Motors

5. ConocoPhillips $11.5 million in profit

6. General Electric

7. Ford Motor

8. Citigroup

9. Bank of America Corp.

10. AT&T

11. Berkshire Hathaway

12. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

13. American International Group

14. Hewlett-Packard

15. International Business Machines

16. Valero Energy

17. Verizon Communications

18. McKesson

19. Cardinal Health

20. Goldman Sachs Group

Tell me again why the gas prices are so high. I am oaky with companies making a profit but the gas companies are in the top five!!! Mad.gif

Complete Story

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/artic...863/Fortune-500

You must be in the wrong era like Dr Evil That would be 40/18/11.5 BILLION in profit, not million....

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Look at the margin, a helluva lot less than most business. If you want prices to come down, drop your demand, yes that means you pleasure boater.

America has been addicted to cheap gas for so long, it's almost an entitlement attitude, and not at all becoming.

I did not see anybody wanting to help save the oil company in the late 90's when gas was below $1.

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They are entitled to make their money, and they are doing it fairly, as far as we know. they would be stupid to co-operate and price fix as they are always under the microscope.

I agree that America is addicted to cheap fuel, and we are starting to realize our addiction.

My solutions:

If you are that worried about it, stop/reduce buying it.

Join them and buy their stock...

I hate paying the gas bills just like you guys do, I have put $3K+ into my truck since Jan 1. I pay plenty of gas bills but, I realize there is nothing that I can realistically do to reduce the prices. I try to find the least expensive, quality gas in the area and buy there and keep on going.

and if you think fuel prices are going to stop me from going to the lake and playing on the lake...You are grossly mistaken!

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................. don't buy gas from Mobile stations, it will eventually change the price of gas. This is because Mobil is the largest, and would have the largest impact nationwide.

Well, this is going to be easy for us. I don't think we have any Mobil stations around here at all.

As long as we have politicians (and their families) who are directly benefiting from things like high gas prices & war, then we will continue to have high gas prices & war.

How about that for opening a big o can of worms. Crazy.gif

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................. don't buy gas from Mobile stations, it will eventually change the price of gas. This is because Mobil is the largest, and would have the largest impact nationwide.

Well, this is going to be easy for us. I don't think we have any Mobil stations around here at all.

As long as we have politicians (and their families) who are directly benefiting from things like high gas prices & war, then we will continue to have high gas prices & war.

How about that for opening a big o can of worms. Crazy.gif

Nicely done. :salute:

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I HATE the high price of gas! 5 days a week I drive just over 100 miles a day round trip and 3 days a week my wife drives about 60 miles round trip. We are burning through gas like crazy!My solution to deal with the high price of gas it tow work OT. I try to work an extra hour + a day to help pay for our driving costs Cry.gif

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Well if it's all about making money, then why don't they just admit to it and quit lying? For a while there were hurricanes to blame, messed up oil rigs, refineries down.....excuse after excuse. Gas has gone up a lot since then. Really no major hurricanes to speak of this last season. Whatever. Now it's just simple supply and demand they say. I don't buy that either. I know demand has to be lower now than a couple years ago. Most everyone is cutting back to some degree. Maybe shorten or cancel a vacation, toy sales are down, carpool, Hybrid sales are up, etc. Is fuel consumption really more than it was say 4 or 5 years ago? I think it's BS.

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Well if it's all about making money, then why don't they just admit to it and quit lying? For a while there were hurricanes to blame, messed up oil rigs, refineries down.....excuse after excuse. Gas has gone up a lot since then. Really no major hurricanes to speak of this last season. Whatever. Now it's just simple supply and demand they say. I don't buy that either. I know demand has to be lower now than a couple years ago. Most everyone is cutting back to some degree. Maybe shorten or cancel a vacation, toy sales are down, carpool, Hybrid sales are up, etc. Is fuel consumption really more than it was say 4 or 5 years ago? I think it's BS.

Are there any more drivers on the road than there were 4 or 5 years ago? How about more people in our country using the fuels, weather they are here legally or not? There have not been any more refineries built in the last 30 years to keep up with this demand that keeps going up. Refineries are operating at 100+% capacity 24/7/365 to keep up with demand. But when something happens it's them damn oil companies fault. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. How about if everyone that doesn't like the high oil prices write your senator and ask them to start drilling in ANWR. We are to dependent on foriegn oil, why because anytime anything happens in one of these countries it makes the price of oil go up.

To be honest you guys should be more shocked and dissapointed on how Wallmart got to the top of that list. They've screwed over alot of people to get there including their employees, residents of cities they do business in, local businesses, and companies that supply them with product. No company is under the microscope more than the oil companies, they're doing it by the book. Every single time the price of oil goes up there is some city or state launching an investigation on price fixing by the oil companies (and theya re using your tax dollars to do it) and they have never found an oil company doing anything wrong. I don't see any cities or states be so upset as to reduce their tax burden on the gas that's sold, infact it goes up all the time.

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If oil companies sold gas at a price so that they made no profit, gas prices would go down about a dime. The current price of a barrel of oil in in the US is more a problem of international finance than a shortage of the resource. The value of the dollar has dropped like a rock, so everything we import costs more.

The only real short-term solution to the high cost of gasoline is a strong dollar.

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................. don't buy gas from Mobile stations, it will eventually change the price of gas. This is because Mobil is the largest, and would have the largest impact nationwide.

Well, this is going to be easy for us. I don't think we have any Mobil stations around here at all.

As long as we have politicians (and their families) who are directly benefiting from things like high gas prices & war, then we will continue to have high gas prices & war.

How about that for opening a big o can of worms. Crazy.gif

Not to get off subject, but I here this type of statement often. Can you give specifics (not generalizations) of who is benefiting by this war and how. BTW look at this IF you want to heap all the blame on a specific individual. http://www.bercasio.com/movies/dems-wmd-before-iraq.wmv

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You can't help but question the pricing tactics when you see this..

On a given day the price of a barrel of oil jumps. Immediately the local gas stations start upping the price. Sometimes I've seen it go up 2 or 3 times in a given day. The argument is that the gas is costing them more money, even though there tanks are filled at an older (cheaper) price.

It hasn't happened very much lately, but occassionally you will see the price of a barrel of oil drop, sometimes substantially, on a given day. Are the same gas stations out lowering prices 2 or 3 times a day? I've never seen it happen. Only now there argument is that the gas they are delivering was purchased at the higher price.

Even if it's "legal" it certainly presents itself as being "fishy". As long as this type of thing continues to happen people are going to question whether or not gas prices are being held artificially high for more profit.

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Hmmmm. Let's see since the original oil embargo and gas shortages of the 1970's America has been on notice with regards to our dependency on foreign oil. Let's take the tree-huggers not wanting drilling in ANWR, Coastal CA & FL and the refusal to build refineries. Let's also touch on the re-tooling refineries for ULSD thus raising the price of your diesel, not counting new mileage on diesel truck engines because of govt mandates. Throw in some demand for India and China, because the American consumer wants cheap goods. Don't forget some low margin requirements for the investment in crude futures.

You can directly and indirectly look in the mirror for rising gas prices. The American consumer can choose to not fuel the economy of India and China by buying goods, live closer to work instead of commuting a ton of miles, conserve water, electricity, recycle, quit buying bottled water, quit voting against oil exploration, and the list goes on. The main thing I would like to see changed is margin requirements on commodities.

Gas is not going back to $2.50 a gallon, get used to it, the addiction to the crack has come home, feed the habit or not.

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Hmmmm. Let's see since the original oil embargo and gas shortages of the 1970's America has been on notice with regards to our dependency on foreign oil. Let's take the tree-huggers not wanting drilling in ANWR, Coastal CA & FL and the refusal to build refineries. Let's also touch on the re-tooling refineries for ULSD thus raising the price of your diesel, not counting new mileage on diesel truck engines because of govt mandates. Throw in some demand for India and China, because the American consumer wants cheap goods. Don't forget some low margin requirements for the investment in crude futures.

You can directly and indirectly look in the mirror for rising gas prices. The American consumer can choose to not fuel the economy of India and China by buying goods, live closer to work instead of commuting a ton of miles, conserve water, electricity, recycle, quit buying bottled water, quit voting against oil exploration, and the list goes on. The main thing I would like to see changed is margin requirements on commodities.

Gas is not going back to $2.50 a gallon, get used to it, the addiction to the crack has come home, feed the habit or not.

auto gets it. At $115 per barrel, crude oil makes up $2.73 of each gallon of gasoline. The cost structure to extract crude has not changed materially. The crude-selling countries are the ones you should be looking at. I'm sure their profits dwarf the companies you highlighted. We need to find and use NA crude.

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This is a great discussion. As VTX said, let's not overlook the Wal*Mart effect and what that company has done to/for the economy. The WalMart Effect is doucmented. I'll try and dig it up later. As far as fuel consumption, I have already made changes and will continue to make more, but these will not compromise the use of the Bu. In fact, these changes are to ensure I can "recreate prudently" this season.

1. Sold the gas-hog truck. Don't need it since our boat stays in the water all season.

2. Ride the Harley as much as possible since it's better than my new-to-me car on gas.

3. Plan to commute by bicycle all summer. 8 miles each way.

4. Don't water/fertilize the lawn - reduce mowing.

5. Design landscape to minimize trimming and blowing, just mow.

6. Adjust thermostats a degree or 2...

7. Filtered tap water, never bottled

8. Recyleable bags for the groceries

Now, if I could get away without bathing or doing laundry-- Whistling.gif I don't think my wife and kids would appreciate that!

Get to the politicians and do your part to convince them to vote for exploring domestic oil options. America did not get this far by bowing to every single group of activists whining about something. Our forefathers went out and DID things to make PROGRESS. Now, since the politicians choose to accomodate every public interest group, we are regressing. Grrr. Mad.gifRanting.gif OK, I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

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Not to change the direction of this topic, but I agree with 06 vlx in regards to his Wal-Mart comments. I saw a documentary on Wal-Mart several months ago in regards to their business practices and global influence. We all know that Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world and they pretty much can do what they want. One small example of their power and influence that I can recall from this show is this: the Wal-Mart headquarters are located in Batesville, Arkansas which has a population of about 30,000. There are no direct airline flights from New York, Miami, Chicago, or LA to the state capital of Little Rock but apparently there are several flights from different airlines from each of the aforementioned cities to Batesville. The power of the largest retailer in the world is significant.

Just some food for thought.

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Hmmmm. Let's see since the original oil embargo and gas shortages of the 1970's America has been on notice with regards to our dependency on foreign oil. Let's take the tree-huggers not wanting drilling in ANWR, Coastal CA & FL and the refusal to build refineries. Let's also touch on the re-tooling refineries for ULSD thus raising the price of your diesel, not counting new mileage on diesel truck engines because of govt mandates. Throw in some demand for India and China, because the American consumer wants cheap goods. Don't forget some low margin requirements for the investment in crude futures.

You can directly and indirectly look in the mirror for rising gas prices. The American consumer can choose to not fuel the economy of India and China by buying goods, live closer to work instead of commuting a ton of miles, conserve water, electricity, recycle, quit buying bottled water, quit voting against oil exploration, and the list goes on. The main thing I would like to see changed is margin requirements on commodities.

Gas is not going back to $2.50 a gallon, get used to it, the addiction to the crack has come home, feed the habit or not.

auto gets it. At $115 per barrel, crude oil makes up $2.73 of each gallon of gasoline. The cost structure to extract crude has not changed materially. The crude-selling countries are the ones you should be looking at. I'm sure their profits dwarf the companies you highlighted. We need to find and use NA crude.

The problem I have with all of this is that while the cost of oil may be 117, the value of that same barrel is still in the low 60's. If they would take oil off the trading market then we would not have these record setting highs. I dont mind them making a profit, we all want to make a profit, but there has to be a limit as to how much is to much!

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I have to agree with a few points and disagree with some others. I have read in the past these "don't buy gas days" from the big names and I have never seen an effect...possibly because nobody participates??? The falling dollar is one of the biggest reasons for the rising gas prices and the commodity driven price in oil is insane. Oil goes up 40% and the price of gas goes up 80%...oil falls 15% gas doesn't move at all. I'm sure stations have to make up for "tanks" that they currently have at a certain price but if the prices continue to increase they are making even more on whats in their tank today. I try to keep my speed in the low 70s and don't jump on the pedal when the light turns green but I have to get to work...a simple fact. And as far as fuel consumption in the BU...if it costs me two to three hundred dollars more this summer to run the boat so be it...my families happiness, and the enjoyment and relaxation is worth $300!!!

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The commodities market is global. If we start drilling ANWR (which doesn't even have all that much oil) that oil will be sold on the world market and China has the same opportunity to buy it as domestic refiners. It would be the proverbial drop in the bucket to our gas prices. And don't argue that we should make the producers just sell crude domestically, they owe a fiduciary duty to their shareholders, which means selling to the highest bidder. The only way to break our dependence on fossil fuels, or at least become more efficient, is to have a situation like we are in, which will spur more development because the demand for energy and transportation, instead of being demonstrated by buying expensive oil, will spur new technology, which will be the better long-term solution anyway. The biggest impact right now is the value of the dollar, the economic explanation for which is for another day.

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