Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 08:02:02 -0600
Reply-To: Aaron Pearson <Aaron.Pearson@GXT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Aaron Pearson <Aaron.Pearson@GXT.COM>
Subject: Re: Diesel Fuel vs. Gasoline
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
of course oil companies lobby to effect energy policy. every industry
with a nickel to spare does that. and of course their goal is to make
money, that's what capitalism is all about. i was arguing about the
logic of fixing prices, which is tricky when you don't control most of
the market. it's a lot easier to make money by breaking environmental
laws, laying off employees, and lying about revenue.
i certainly agree about voters being misinformed.
aaron
syncro '87 gl
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Felder [mailto:felder@KNOLOGY.NET]
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 5:43 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Diesel Fuel vs. Gasoline
Come on, now. Your 40% of small companies leaves sixty percent
comprising only a handful of international corporations who spend
millions, even billions to influence american (and other) politics. The
fact that they lobby with money year after year after year means that
it's working. They would quit doing it and try something else if they
didn't get their way through spending money and other influences. And
what other goal do you think they have in mind other than their bottom
lines, every quarter and every year?
There may be a number of small companies who are helpless to make
policy, but I assure you they are benefiting from the business
environment created by those who are not helpless. Maybe if you were a
small company you didn't get to sit down with Dick Cheney in 2001 and
concoct our current energy policy behind closed doors, but the big guys
did.
The american voters are misinformed on the energy issue and virtually
every other issue as well. They vote the way big money tells them to
vote.
Being misinformed is far worse than being uninformed, because you have
so much to learn just to get to the level of stupid.
Jim
On Apr 27, 2005, at 5:12 PM, Aaron Pearson wrote:
> i can think of several dozen privately held oil and gas companies off
> the top of my head that many people have probably never heard of.
> some have fewer than a dozen employees. independent oil comapnies
> produce 40% of the oil that americans consume. i'm sure many of them
> would love to be clever enough to conspire to fix prices, but the only
> reason they are making money is because of the open market.
>
> the boogeyman (boogeypeople?) are american voters, who are unable to
> vote for something that will cost money in the short term. i'm not
> against regulation at all, it's the only way we'll ever be able to
> move to alternative fuel- oil is still way too cheap.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gnarlodious [mailto:gnarlodious@EARTHLINK.NET]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 3:50 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Diesel Fuel vs. Gasoline
>
>
> Entity Aaron Pearson spoke thus:
>
>> of course profit drives the oil industry, it drives every industry in
>> a capitalist economy. there's no reason a company should charge any
>> less for its product than the maximum consumers are willing to spend.
>
> But what we are seeing now is the result of unrestrained
> consolidation, which at one time would have been prohibited under the
> Sherman Antitrust Act.
>
> Add this monopoly to the intentional sabotage of alternative fuel
> programs and it looks like we didn't learn the lesson of 1973. Those
> who are too young to remember can read or listen to Jimmy Carter's
> speech:
> http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimmycartercrisisofconfidence.htm
>
> Of course, Ronald Reagan's (elected on Big Oil cash I might add) first
> official act as President was to remove the solar panels Jimmy Carter
> had put on top of the White House.
>
> I have heard those Libertarian (AKA Corporatist) talk radio wingnuts
> blame this on government overregulation, but it just ignores history.
> Their statements simply underscore their ultimate agenda of
> eliminating Government in all forms and handing our economy over to
> Corporations.
>
> The bottom line IMHO? It's virtually impossible to pricefix when the
> raw material is coming from corn and soybean farmers, windmill and
> solar farms and cottage industry refiners.
>
> -- Gnarlie
>