Friday, June 27, 2008

Is Big Oil Really Gouging Us?

While driving home for lunch today, I was thinking about the Price Gouging bill that I think is still stuck in committee. Are the oil companies gouging us at the pump? The Democrats want you to think that. Those evil Big Oil companies, Bush and Cheney cronies.

Here's the facts: Oil has more than doubled in price, from $65 to today's $142 per barrel (118 percent increase) in the last year. Yet, gas prices over the same period have gone up $1.09 a gallon, an increase of 36 percent, from $2.98 to $4.07. My source is the Energy Information Agency.

If the Oil companies were charging based strictly on the price of oil, then we'd be paying over $6 a gallon.

Look, I know there are a lot of variables that goes into the pricing of the gasoline that we finally pump, but I think you get my point. We are not getting gouged. If anything, market pressures are keeping the price down further than it would without competition.

Are we tired of talking about oil and gas yet? Just go get some more. It's there for the taking.

BTW, for you liberals out there: What am I doing driving home for lunch? Well, I live in a small town, my commute is less than 10 minutes, and I drive a 2004 Buick LeSabre, which gets 28 mpg in town, and 35 mpg on the highway.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I sure wish we could go back to the old days of $.99 gas. However, this garbage of price-gouging and how we need to criminalize the oil companies is absurd. The government gets more money out of a gallon or gas than the people that explore, drill, pump, transport, refine, and distribute the oil and gasoline!!! Crazy!

I wasn't aware that gas should have done up even more based on oil prices. Interesting stuff, Steve