Big Oil

I know next to nothing about how oil and gasoline is priced, and I have no love or hate for big oil; but it really bugs me when our U.S. Senate calls oil executives up for what everyone knows is a purely political endeavor. And to hear these senators ask their questions, as if they themselves are pure and holy, is embarrassing. The bottom line is that whenever Congress has had opportunities to implement energy alternatives, they passed on it. They keep talking about how we need to be energy independent, but deny the very people who can help us achieve that. In many respects, oil companies are hand tied by Congress from pursuing oil on American soil.

Oil company profits are huge, but it is a huge and costly business. If you tax these profits, the price of gasoline will go up (a concept that seems to confuse Democrats). If you ask oil companies and their shareholders (and many, many Americans are invested in oil) to pass on these profits by lowering the price of gasoline, then at least three things will happen: 1) shareholders will suffer by seeing their investments diminish; 2) oil companies will have less to invest in alternative fuels, newer equipment, and maintenance of older equipment (and 10 years from now when some refinery blows up due to reduced maintenance, these same oil execs will be brought before the Senate to explain why); and 3) most likely the per gallon cost of gasoline would not drop all that much. If Congress wanted to see the price drop at least a little, they could drop the tax rate we're charged at the pump. But that won't happen because Congress wants that money, and quite frankly we need it for road construction. So why should they expect or even demand that oil companies drop their profit margin? Again, a political ploy.