Anyone listen to the hearing on C-SPAN 1 about Gas Prices?

[Sydnie]

Pat Meadowcroft, an independant gas station owner said "If American really wants to do something in this country that would be outstanding, and I am in the gas station business myself and it would really hurt me for a few days but I would rather get hurt for a few days or for a week, if everybody would just quit buying gas. You would be amazed how it would change the whole picture because this is the, if the gas don't flow, there's no money to be made. It's really that simple. So if like a, they were saying on TV, on Fox News, if people would just stop buying gas one day a week, You would be amazed how this would send jitters through the whole industry. And what I don't like about the oil industry is the idea that a man with a pencil determines price. Every day, he writes down what the crisis are, and he determines price. The way I've looked at it for forty years, I might be wrong but this is the impression I get, it has no basis in reality, what's going on has no basis at all. What happened with Katrina that our prices shot up 40% has no basis in reality. Where did they come up with these figures?"

Then, the figures that Byron Dorgan gave were amazing! He said


"I should mention that since we began about an hour ago, it's about 9 and one half million dollars of windfall or excess profits above record profits that the industry had already experienced. Figure that for 24 hours a day and you're talking about two hundred and forty million dollars a day in excess or windfall profits. That is the game for the industry and the pain for the consumer. Again, these are profits above that which was already recorded as record profit levels in the year 2004."

Holy Shit! Why not let the oil companies pay for the clean up of Katrina? They can afford in, oh, a month or so!

[aquart]

1. A windfall profits tax to pay for Katrina!

Why didn't our government think of that?

[Sydnie]

2. Don't use the word tax - LOL

"Corporate Faith Based Revitalization Fund".

I liked what the gas station owner said. If we just stop buying gas for one week, we could cripple them!

[joanski0]

10. I believe I heard the gas station owner say

that we should not buy gas for one day each week. He said it would surprise us how jittery they would get.

[Sydnie]

11. What I typed is exactly what he said - I used tivo to get it exact

I think his point was well stated. If we didn't buy gas one day a week, or for a week, that collectively we could get their attention and cost them some profits. He did use the word jitters. He was explaining that gas that stays in the pipelines costs them money. Excess gas is sold to the little independents like him. He said that he had purchased gas at a higher price and had to sell it at a loss (of 25 cents a gallon, I think that was the number he used) to compete with the stations down the street that are owned by the oil companies and could sell their gas at a lower rate as soon as the prices fell. He said he had to sell off the gas he had bought at the higher price before he could purchase gas at the new lower price. So, he sold it at a loss. He also said that he went from sales that ranged between 2,500 and 3000 individual customers per week to around 500 and that the loss of approximately 80% of his usual business was devastating to his entire operation.

So much for supporting the "entrepreneur spirit in this country" huh?

[shugh514]

3. Gas boycotts have no effect

To lower the demand and thus bring prices down it must be more than not buying gas for one day, consumers must consume less. Using less gas per day or week overall will do more to lower gas prices.

[Sydnie]

4. That, in effect, is exactly what he was saying

He was implying that, gas that stays in the pipe line and is not sold to a retail supplier, is actually gas that loses money for the oil companies.

We are saying the same thing. Whether it be not buying gas for a day and/or lowering our consumption over all, it would have the same effect according to this witness at this hearing.

[Jeanette in FL]

5. Yes, very interesting

Sen. Byron Dorgan, is holding these hearings on the hike on Gas prices. It has been very interesting. It will probably repeat tonight sometime. Has had all kinds of testimony from all kinds of people. Energy Analyst, Station owners, etc. They invited the heads of major Oil companies and they all declined.

[Seansky]

6. Everyone should read this!!!

[Sydnie]

9. I agree - this is hard hitting stuff

They had a clock, not unlike the defecit clocks you see on the net, that clicked off the profits for the entire hearing. It was amazing to see it flipping numbers as fast as they do on the pump these days.

[Lasher]

7. Lots of American jobs today could be done from home

If our president were to effectively encourage more home-sourcing (hey, I just invented that), it would have a positive impact on a number of fronts. Lots of our jobs are done in office buildings, but could be done just as well or better from home offices. But the president doesn't want to do this, or anything else, that would interfere with the oil companies' windfall profits.

[mikeysnot]

8. Corporatist

like to have you around for show. I mentioned this at my online meeting for a large corp. It was decided without trying it that people would "goof off" and the work would not get done. I stated that we goof off now, and the work still gets done. The head of online, was not amused at my analogy. I'm like one day a week, lets try it. I think they know that they goof off at those off campus "meetings" so it was mostly "projection". One thing I learned from execs is that they like to feel superior in every way. Stock options, vacations, high salaries are all for the mucky mucks, so if they give any of that away to the "have not" they would not feel as "elite". Unfortunately there were just as many Demo's "haves" as there were republicans.

People were coming in from all other to work on jobs that they could have stayed home, no commute, no traffic, no pollution, etc if they just stayed home. If you are not in your cubicle "pen", they are not controlling you. Seven years in corp. was enough for me. Unfortunately I don't make enough, my wife is still there living with the BS.

Her companies CEO did nothing, sold off assets, lost revenue and still got a 750,000 dollar raise on top of half million bonus. My wife after 10 years got a 1% raise. He's been CEO for 5 and has done nothing but sell off assets. This cannot go on like this much longer. Something has got to give.