Thread: How does this make you feel?

Read the following article, then think about it everytime you put gasoline in your car.


http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1841989&page=1


Robert

makes me glad that I don't drive

Originally Posted by buttrfli

makes me glad that I don't drive

lol

makes me wish I didnt!

I can't get the linkk to work .. could someone post the article ?

I obviously have the wrong career.

Jolie here is the article:
April 14, 2006— Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn't complaining.

Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits.

Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.

Last November, when he was still chairman of Exxon, Raymond told Congress that gas prices were high because of global supply and demand.

"We're all in this together, everywhere in the world," he testified.

Raymond, however, was confronted with caustic complaints about his compensation.

"In 2004, Mr. Raymond, your bonus was over $3.6 million," Sen. Barbara Boxer said.

That was before new corporate documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that revealed Raymond's retirement deal and his $51.1 million paycheck in 2005. That's equivalent to $141,000 a day, nearly $6,000 an hour. It's almost more than five times what the CEO of Chevron made.

"I think it will spark a lot of outrage," said Sarah Anderson, a fellow in the global economy program at the Institute for Policy Studies, an independent think tank. "Clearly much of his high-level pay is due to the high price of gas."

Exxon defends Raymond's compensation, pointing out that during the 12 years he ran the company, Exxon became the largest oil company in the world and that the stock price went up 500 percent.

A company spokesman said the compensation package reflected "a very long and distinguished career."

Some Exxon shareholders are now trying to pass resolutions criticizing the company's executive pay policies. The company is urging other shareholders to vote against those resolutions.

Consumers pay as oil companies profit
Mon Apr 17, 7:18 AM ET

USA TODAY's question-and-answer story is quaintly naïve when it explains that gas pump prices are up to a large extent because oil companies are "simply passing on increases in the price of crude" ("Several factors converge for higher gas costs," Money, Wednesday).

Doesn't USA TODAY realize that the oil companies are passing on the cost increases with a mark-up built in to preserve their "percentage operating margins" for Wall Street?

For example, a 20-cent hike in their variable cost of goods might translate into, say, a 30-cent hike at the pump - and a 10-cent-a-gallon windfall for them. Their percentage margins might remain unchanged, but their penny margins go up significantly on each gallon sold. And, voila, such circumstances allow the profits of companies such as ExxonMobil to hit $36 billion in a quarter.

USA TODAY seems as unable to spot this sleight of hand as the senators on the energy committee who get bamboozled by it every time they haul up the oil CEOs for questioning.

Bob Drane
Madison, Wis.



Oil Prices Settle Above $70 a Barrel
By BRAD FOSS, AP Business Writer
1 hour, 55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Oil prices settled at a record high above $70 a barrel on Monday, rising more than $1 on concerns about supply disruptions in Nigeria and diplomatic tensions between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

So long as these and other geopolitical issues persist, analysts said it will be difficult for prices to fall too far — unless there is a significant drop-off in demand, which they aren't yet seeing. In the short-term, oil prices could climb above $75, they said.

"Where the top is is pretty hard to say at this point," said New York-based oil broker Tom Bentz.

Light sweet crude for May delivery settled at $70.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, an increase of $1.08 from Thursday's close and 59 cents above the previous closing record set last August. The exchange was closed Friday.

The gasoline market was also delivered a jolt on Monday, with Nymex gasoline futures jumping 6.18 cents to settle at $2.1697 a gallon — the highest level since late September. At the retail level, the nationwide average for regular unleaded is $2.78 per gallon, or 55 cents higher than last year, according to the Energy Department.

Crude futures first surpassed $70 a barrel on Aug. 30 in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Prices climbed as high as $70.85 a barrel during the day, and then settled at $69.81.

On an inflation-adjusted basis, oil prices would have to rise above $90 to exceed the all-time highs set a quarter century ago when supplies became tight in the aftermath of a revolution in Iran and a war between Iraq and Iran. In 2005 dollars, the average price of crude in 1980 was just under $77 a barrel.

ABN Amro broker Lee Fader said the trigger for Monday's rally was "heightened fear about military action" against Iran, which has said it would go ahead with plans to enrich uranium, defying the United States, Europe and United Nations nuclear experts. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, but the West fears the country is intent on arming itself with nuclear weapons.

"If somehow this got resolved diplomatically," Fader said, "that would definitely take a few dollars off" the price of crude oil.

The market was also driven by the disruption of crude supplies in Nigeria, where more than half a million barrels a day of crude production capacity are being blocked due to militant violence. There has been production added in other parts of the country, though, and that has offset the impact. According to Platts, Nigeria produced 2.15 million barrels per day in March, down from 2.37 million barrels per day in February.

In the Gulf of Mexico, more than 300,000 barrels a day remains shut because of damage from last summer's vicious hurricane season.

Underlying the nervousness about supplies in the Middle East, Africa and the U.S. is the global industry's thin margin for error. Worldwide demand is expected to average 85 million barrels per day in 2006, leaving just 1.9 million barrels per day of excess production capacity that could be called upon in an emergency, according to Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

CERA oil analyst James Burkhard said this supply cushion shows no sign of growing anytime soon. "So far we're not at the point where demand is pulling back," he said.

However, global oil demand is growing at a slower rate than last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

The U.S. Energy Department forecast last week that gasoline demand would rise this summer by 1.5 percent to 9.4 million barrels per day, and that prices would average $2.62 a gallon from now through September.

On London's ICE Futures exchange, Brent crude oil futures settled 89 cents higher at a record $71.46 a barrel.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 3.98 cents to close at $2.0229 a gallon while natural gas finished 44.2 cents higher at $7.577 per 1,000 cubic feet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060417/...NqBHNlYwM3NDk-

I don't begrudge them the profits . The oil companies have taken large losses in the past(remember the 80's and 90's) With the way the greenies are trying to keep forcing them to change their (and our) evil gas guzzeling ways a big honkin hunk of these and future profits will be going into R&D. Everyone complains about the prices but we must realize that we have been getting away with lower prices than almost anywhere in the world for a long time.

I would rather it go into R&D then ONE person's pocket ...