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PBS Discussions :: View topic - Senate Approves Gas Price Gouging Amendment
The Senate Thursday approved an amendment to an energy bill that would include the requirement that the Federal Trade Commission look into allegations of gas price gouging.
June 23, 2005
Quote: : The amendment, sponsored by Sens.
Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), has received unanimous support.
"At the same time that rising gas prices are causing Michigan families to think about curtailing their summer vacations, oil conglomerates are announcing all-time record profits," Stabenow said in arguing for her amendment.
She noted that prices this week at one Michigan gas station climbed from $2.10 to $2.35 per gallon within two hours.
"A majority of Americans believe these skyrocketing gas prices are not fair, and I am pleased that my Senate colleagues have agreed with me that the FTC needs to investigate these price hikes," said Stabenow.
People in Dorgan's home state of North Dakota are paying about $210,000 every day, or nearly $77 million a year, on higher gas prices compared to just one year ago, at which time gas was 21 cents a gallon less than today.
"This investigation will help us determine whether the high gas prices we are paying at the pump are the result of legitimate markets forces or, as we saw with Enron in California several years ago, deliberate market manipulation," said Dorgan.
"We need some answers, and we need them sooner rather than later."
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Why don't you use your own money to go discover and pump the oil that aint't there no more.
http://www.worldbank.org/energy/
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Hey Lee, How ya doin'?
Big oil rakes in historic profits
While drivers have been paying up at the pump, profit has been gushing in to oil companies.
Quote: : On Thursday, ExxonMobil became the starkest example yet of how much big oil companies benefited from the huge run-up in oil prices in the third quarter even as two hurricanes ripped through the industry's Gulf Coast infrastructure.
Exxon reported:
Profit up 75% to $9.9 billion.
That's the second-most a U.S.
Company has earned in a three-month period, a USA TODAY analysis of data from Capital IQ found.
It's greater than the annual gross domestic product of entire nations, including Niger, Zambia and Iceland.
Revenue up 32% to $100.7 billion.
That's greater than the annual GDP of all but just 57 of the world's economies.
It is also the most revenue what is brought in selling goods and services a U.S.
Corporation has posted in a quarter.
Exxon illustrates the energy sector's tremendous profit amid record-high energy prices.
The industry is on pace to earn $96 billion this year more than the USA's industrial and telecom companies will earn combined, says Standard & Poor's.
Royal Dutch Shell reported net income of $9 billion Thursday.
This week, BP reported a $6.5 billion third-quarter profit and ConocoPhillips, $3.8 billion.
Today, ChevronTexaco is expected to post earnings of $3.9 billion, says Reuters Estimates.
The windfalls were widely expected, given the soaring price of oil.
A barrel of oil hit a record $70 in the third quarter and, even though it has backed off to $61.09 Thursday, it is still up 41% in 2005.
The banner profits came despite damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Exxon said oil production fell 5% during the quarter and natural-gas production fell 9%.
"Strong commodity prices offset any effect of the hurricane," says analyst Lysle Brinker at John S.
Herold. Oil companies benefited dramatically because the wholesale price of gasoline rose more rapidly than the price of oil because the hurricanes knocked out refining capacity, says Jason Putman, analyst at Victory Capital Management.
The average price of oil was up 44% in the third quarter from a year ago, says Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover, and the average wholesale price of refined gasoline rose 51% to $1.90.
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Oil Execs to Appear Before Congress to Address High Energy Prices
Major oil industry executives will be on the hot seat next week when they go before Congress to explain why a portion of their $96 billion record profits should not be used to offset high energy prices for Americans
November 02, 2005
Quote: :
Both sides of the aisle expressed concern over news of the oil industry's profits at a time when oil prices recently hit record highs.
Executives from Exxon, ConocoPhillips, and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are expected to appear before a Senate hearing.
All three companies earned combined profits of more than $22 billion from July to September 2005, while the price of crude oil skyrocketed to $70 a barrel and $3 a gallon for gas at the pump.
Lee Raymond, chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp., Jim Mulva, chief executive of ConocoPhillips, and John Hofmeister, president of the U.S.
Unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, will be among the industry executives to be questioned at a Senate hearing, according to congressional and industry officials.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because a final list of witnesses yet to be completed.
The three companies together earned more than $22 billion during the July-September quarter this year when crude oil prices soared briefly to $70 a barrel and motorists were paying well over $3 gallon at the pump after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast.
Spokesmen for Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell would not confirm Tuesday that their executives had been called to testify.
ConocoPhillips did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
There is growing distress among both Republicans and Democrats in Congress about the huge profits reported by oil companies last week.
On Tuesday, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Finance Committee, said oil companies "should do their part" and donate some of their third-quarter earnings to low-income families and senior citizens having trouble paying energy bills, including high heating bills this winter.
Grassley cited industry analysts as estimating that the 29 major oil and gas companies are expected to earn $96 billion this year.
"You have a responsibility to help less fortunate Americans cope with the high cost of heating fuels," Grassley, whose committee deals with tax legislation, wrote in a letter to the chief of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's lobbying arm.
He also said companies should invest more of their profits in exploration and production and refining capacity to increase supplies.
Earlier in the day, Sens.
Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., renewed their call for passage of a windfall profits tax on oil companies.
They hoped to put such a proposal - a 50 percent tax on the sale of oil over $40 a barrel - into a tax bill later this month, they said.
The revenue would be given to consumers in form of an income tax rebate.
These huge profits "come as a windfall, falling into the laps of the big oil companies with little or no additional effort or expense," argued Dorgan.
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Pumps go dry at some gas stations
Fri, Apr.
21, 2006 - Problems at refineries have disrupted some supplies.
AAA warned that problems could continue for weeks - and drive prices higher.
Quote: :
As if rising prices weren't enough, the tanks have run dry at some Philadelphia-area service stations in the last few days as the refining industry stumbles through a change in the formulation of gasoline.
Oil refiners are phasing out a petrochemical that makes gasoline burn cleaner but which also has been found to contaminate groundwater.
Refiners are switching to corn-based ethanol.
The changeover is creating supply-chain bottlenecks because much work must be done at fuel terminals and service stations to handle ethanol.
The maintenance-related shutdown of one area refinery, production problems at another, and the change from winter-blend to summer-blend gasoline are exacerbating the problems.
More http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/14391807.htm
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Fearless W puttin' the oil companies on notice he ain't gonna tolerate no gouging shenanigans...
Bush orders probe into gas price cheating
4/24/2006
President Bush is trying to calm Americans' outrage over soaring gas prices by ordering an investigation into whether the price of gasoline has been illegally manipulated, his spokesman said Monday.
Quote: :
During the last few days, Bush asked his Energy and Justice departments to open inquiries into possible cheating in the gasoline markets, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
Bush planned to announce the action Tuesday during a speech in Washington.
Bush is under pressure to do something about gas prices that have reached nearly $3 a gallon.
In a new CNN poll, 69% of respondents said gasoline price increases had caused them personal hardship.
Other polls suggest that voters favor Democrats over Republicans on the issue, and President Bush gets low marks for handling gas prices.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., urged Bush in a letter Monday to order a federal investigation into any gasoline price gouging or market speculation.
Bush was working on the speech aboard Air Force One as he flew home Monday evening from a four-day trip to California that ended with a swing through Las Vegas.
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House OKs Penalty for Gas Price Gouging
May 23, 2007 -- Responding to high costs at the pump, the House approved legislation Wednesday that would outlaw gasoline price gouging.
Many lawmakers said that may be easier to say than to detect or enforce.
Quote: :
The legislation would penalize individuals or companies for taking "unfair advantage" or charging "unconscionably excessive" prices for gasoline and other fuels.
Opponents said the language was too vague and that the Federal Trade Commission, which would enforce the law, has not clearly defined price gouging.
"I don't know what `unconscionably excessive' means," said Rep.
Joe Barton, R-Texas.
The bill's chief sponsor, Democratic Rep.
Bart Stupak of Michigan, said he had no doubt the FTC would be able to determine price gouging once the agency had a law to uphold.
The measure would establish the first federal law against energy price gouging.
The FTC now can investigate price manipulation under antitrust laws.
Currently, 29 states have price gouging statutes;
Enforcement varies widely.
Stupak's proposal only would go into effect - and then for just 30 days - if the president declared an energy emergency.
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What is the "correct" pump price for gasoline?
Zionism is the National Liberation Movement of the Jewish People.
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Probably about half what it is.
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Cause and effect??...
US Regulators Push to Strengthen Oversight of Energy Markets
May 30, 2008 - Faced with enormous political pressure to tighten the oversight of energy trading, federal regulators said Thursday that they have been investigating oil and derivative markets for six months to look into potential price manipulation.
Quote: :
The revelation came as the agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, also announced a series of measures intended to heighten regulatory supervision of energy trading and bring greater sunshine into the commodities markets.
The commission, which does not typically disclose ongoing investigations, said that since December 2007 it had been conducting a nationwide inquiry of practices surrounding the purchase, transportation, storage and trading of oil contracts.
It did not say whom it was investigating, nor did it say when it expected the investigation to be completed.
The commission seems keen to address concerns raised in Congress this year that oil prices have been somehow artificially lifted by investors enthusiasm for energy commodities.
Oil futures have risen 32 percent this year and have more than quadrupled since 2003.
On Thursday, oil futures fell $4.41 a barrel to $126.62 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gasoline prices touched a national average of $3.95 a gallon, up from about $3.20 a gallon a year ago.
The commission said the new measures would improve oversight of the energy futures markets to ensure they reflect fundamental economic forces of supply and demand, free of manipulation and fraud. But some analysts said the rules would do little to reduce volatility in the oil market, or lead to lower prices.
The new measures include, for example, an extended agreement with the commissions British counterpart to expand the surveillance of energy futures contracts with delivery points in the United States.
More http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/business/30oil.html?ref=business
See also:
Oil prices take a slide
May 29, 2008: Cap day of big prices swings as inventories plummet, economy grows and government unveils oil trading probe.
Quote: :
Oil prices fell over $4 Thursday, a day of wild price swings on the back of plummeting crude supplies, signs of a strong economy, and news the government is six months into an oil trading investigation.
U.S. light crude for July delivery settled down $4.41 at $126.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The 3.37% decline was the biggest on a percentage basis since March 19, according to the Energy Information Administration.
A report on oil inventories was perhaps the most closely watched factor.
In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude stocks decreased by 8.8 million barrels last week.
Analysts were looking for an increase of 750,000 barrels, according to a survey from Platts, an energy research firm.
But the report issued online by the EIA said "the drop was due to temporary delays in crude oil tanker off-loadings on the Gulf Coast."
Oil futures, down $1.80 to $129.23 just prior to the report, surged as high as $133.12 minutes after the 10:30 a.m.
ET release. "Everybody reacted to the headline number, but then the report says that a lot of the drawbacks are due to imports," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Alaron Trading.
He said the oil that was missing from the report could very well be floating in tankers on the Gulf of Mexico, where fog often closes ports this time of year.
More http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/29/markets/oil_eia/
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U.S. oil trade surveillance won't burst "bubble"
Fri May 30, 2008 - A move by U.S.
Regulators to boost surveillance of energy trading may cool speculation in the red hot market but it won't do much to pull down prices that have more than doubled in a year.
Quote: :
Under pressure from U.S.
Lawmakers blaming gung-ho speculation for the rapid inflation in oil prices that is threatening U.S.
Economic growth, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission said this week it was investigating oil-market trading and beefing up reporting requirements to make the market more transparent.
Energy experts said the move could spook some big investors into trimming back their positions to stay under the regulatory radar and defend against the possibility that other big investors will do the same.
"Just as traders may have been more willing to bet on prices rising higher in the belief that there was this ongoing flow of buying to drive it to new highs, now there's more of a question mark," said Tim Evans, analyst for Citi Futures Perspective in New York.
Oil prices have risen sixfold since 2002 to a record over $135 a barrel as surging demand in China and other developing economies strains global supplies, drawing in billions of dollars in cash from short-term speculators to longer-term investors like pension funds.
Money tracking commodity index funds, which give investors exposure to a basket of commodity futures, has swelled from $70 billion at the beginning of 2006 to $235 billion in mid-April, according to Lehman Brothers estimates.
Some analysts argue a steep increase in investment these indexes in recent months is responsible for the 30 percent rise in crude this year, sending prices to levels not supported by supply and demand fundamentals and creating an oil "bubble".
More http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN3037873520080530
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Oil trading probe may uncover manipulation
May 31, 2008: But overall, any wrongdoing is likely to play a small part in soaring crude prices.
Meanwhile, speculators aren't expected to hang.
Quote: :
Amid soaring oil prices that some say are caused by nothing more than rampant speculation, the government Thursday announced a wide ranging probe into oil price manipulation and said it would get more information on the effect investors are having on the market.
The measures, undertaken by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after pressure from angry lawmakers, do two things.
First, they'll attempt to gather more information from index funds and other non-commercial users of oil.
They'll also seek information on oil trades made outside the U.S.
On exchanges like the IntercontinentalExchange Europe (ICE) where the CFTC has no oversight and has been unable to get more detailed information.
The second thing on the CFTC's agenda is an actual investigation into possible price manipulation - most likely by a commercial user of oil like a production company, shipping company, or storage company.
Information gathering
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Imbeciles...
House fails to move gas pump price gouging bill
Jun 25, `08 WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats failed Tuesday to resurrect a bill to punish price gouging at the gas pump, while maneuvering to block Republican attempts to expand offshore drilling, an idea gaining in popularity amid $4-a-gallon gas prices.
Quote: :
Action on legislation that would assure continuation of the ban on oil and natural gas drilling in most of the country's coastal waters was put off until later this summer after it became increasingly clear that Republican lawmakers may have the votes to lift the drilling moratorium.
As Democrats prepared a string of energy proposals before lawmakers depart for the July 4 holiday recess, Republicans charged that they were being blocked from getting a vote on whether to end the ban on offshore oil and gas drilling.
Last week GOP presidential candidate John McCain as well as President Bush called for ending the blanket prohibition on energy development over 80 percent of the country's offshore waters.
Republicans contend that the offshore bans should be ended to allow for more domestic oil and gas production, an argument that has gained support with $130-a-barrel oil raising the cost of everything from food to air travel.
The House Appropriations Committee has postponed consideration of an Interior Department spending bill that included continuation of the offshore drilling ban.
Republicans had prepared a proposal that would have ended the ban and allowed oil and gas development 50 miles from shore in all U.S.
Coastal waters. "Somebody's afraid that we'll send a message" and lift the drilling ban, Rep.
Jerry Lewis of California, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations panel, said Tuesday as the panel focused on other legislation.
More http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080625/D91GSUK80.html
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