Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less


I am getting sick and tired of all the snivelling liberals in the media and around the country who complain about Big Oil's windfall profits. Will someone please tell me when success became a crime, and when enormous success became downright un-American?
All companies, including oil companies, are in the business to make money. In a free market, this is done by creating a product or service that the public wants and then selling it for the most money the market will bear while keeping your costs down. In this regard, the oil companies have been a fabulous success. Their profit margin is only 4% after they pay taxes and all of the associated costs of exploring, drilling, transporting, refining, distributing, and marketing their product, and yet they still make billions and billions of dollars.
The fact of the matter is that our economy depends on oil to function. It isn't "nice" that we have oil - it is essential. Because every other industry depends on the availability of petroleoum and petroleum products, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that oil companies are going to make a boatload of money, even with a measely 4% profit margin.
If anything, you have to admire the oil companies for their restraint in this market. Because the world's economy runs on oil, they can pretty much ask whatever price they want for their product, and we will pay it. We have to have it and will pretty much pay whatever price we have to to get it. The fact that they have limited their take to 4% speaks volumes about their generosity. They could up that margin at any point, and there is really not a whole lot that could be done about it.
What I find downright criminal in regards to our current fuel crisis is that the government is involved in the free market anyway, and the absolutley asinine solutions that some of our elected oficials propose. Among the more ridiculous proposals are the so-called windfall profit taxes. The assumption is that, by taking away more of the oil companies' profits, the price of gas will come down. Do they not understand who will ultimately pay those taxes? The average American these politicians claim to care about and look out4 for.
Also, don't let the government fool you about who is really making bank in the fuel industry. On average for every dollar spent on fuel, the government gets $0.15 as compared to the "evil" oil companies' $0.04. Who is getting the windfall here?
If our elected officials really cared about the cost of fuel, here are several easy steps for them to take:
1) Lift the restrictions on drilling off our coasts and within our borders. (Yes - this includes ANWR)
2) Allow new refineries to be built in the U.S.
3) Ease back on the amount of taxes that are charged for fuel purchases
4) Create an incentive for the development of alternative fuels that really work
5) Stop insisting on ethanol - it doesn't reduce emissions and not only increases our fuel price, it increases our food price
6) Allow more nuclear facilities to be built in the U.S.
If you would like to help send a message about petroleum policy to congress and the president, sign the Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less petition at http://www.americansolutions.com/

2 comments:

Rhonda said...

If Ethanol doesn't really reduce emissions then why are they claiming it does? What leg do they have to stand on...or is there just a shred of reduction and they run with it?

Curious and sick of gas prices,
~Rhonda :)

Keeper of Banners said...

Ethanol actually increases CO2 emmissions. It is just another one of those "feel good" policies that politicians sell to make it look like they are doing something. The result of all of this is not just higher gas prices, but the cost of corn, rice, and wheat has gone through the roof as well.
One of the biggest names with a stake in Ethanol is Al Gore. When he was Vice-President, he cast the tie-breaking vote that mandated the use of ethanol in our gas mixtures. Give that guy a Nobel Peace Prize!