Chuck Schumer calls for the breakup of major OIL monopolies

[mdmc]

or at least he calls for looking into it. NOW THATS WHAT I'M TALKIN BOUT!!!!

The GOP is for big oil. I WANT THE DEMS TO BE FOR THE CONSUMER! Break up the big oil companies! Fuck their profits! I want things to change!

Thanks Chuck Schumer!

[blm]

1. Best thing I ever heard from Schumer. Glad to hear it, too.

.

[mtnsnake]

33. Chuck's had a lot of good things to say

Just add this one to the list!

[The2ndWheel]

2. They'll just go back again

Power centralizes and consolidates.

[ClassWarrior]

3. Yeah, yeah, so give up. Resistance is futile.

~yawn~

NGU.

[The2ndWheel]

7. I didn't say that

But I don't expect any significant change to the way things are run, so you're right.

~yawn~ Contagious.

[ClassWarrior]

24. So you did say that.

Okay. I love how some so-called Progressives run around and throw cold water on any hope that blossoms.

:eyes:

NGU.

[The2ndWheel]

42. You call it hope

I call it a minor inconvenience to the oil companies in the overall picture.

So what if I throw cold water on it? I'm not a Senator. If they want to go ahead and do it, good for them. I can't stop them from doing it. It's just my opinion, one which will never be seen by anyone in the halls of power.

[mdmc]

5. still, i'd like to see the breakup

I really would.

[The2ndWheel]

8. And the rules will still be set

by the same people as before.

[mdmc]

10. Well, it is a capitalist democracy

I wish that we could have a socialistic gas / oil policy, but... We only have one corporate party (with a GOP wing, and a dem wing). :shrug:

[Radio_Guy]

20. Agreed

Maybe once we get a Democrat House, Senate and White House, we will nationalize oil and gas. Do away with electric companies while we are at it.

[mdmc]

23. a nice thought

optomistic

[Burried News]

4. Reshape the dialogue! They don't pay attention until you mention

windfall profits or better yet - nationalization of a strategic asset.

[ProSense]

6. Oil Industry May Face Tough Time in D.C.

Oil Industry May Face Tough Time in D.C.

By BRAD FOSS and STEVE QUINN, AP Business Writers
34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The country's three largest oil and gas companies are expected to report combined first-quarter profits this week in excess of $16 billion, a 19 percent surge from last year that is sure to complicate life for the industry in Washington, where elected officials are scrambling for ways to assuage angry consumers and businesses.

President Bush on Tuesday gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to temporarily waive regional clean-fuel regulations to promote greater gasoline-supply flexibility, but members of Congress have other ideas. Some are renewing calls for a windfall profits tax and some want federal regulators to investigate industry consolidation. Still others are threatening hearings and expressing outrage at how the industry invests cautiously in new refining capacity yet rewards its executives lavishly.

"These members of Congress are fit to be tied," said Paul Cicio, executive director of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, a trade group concerned about the soaring cost of natural gas.

Snip...

Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, said more hearings are necessary to determine how oil companies invest their profits. Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., said a windfall profits tax may be necessary and that any future consolidation in the industry deserves more scrutiny. Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., has asked the Federal Trade Commission to monitor refiners this summer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060425/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_oil_1

[KittyWampus]

16. weren't oil industry exec's caught lying when testifying to congress

about 2 months ago?

[oneold1-4u]

9. Social economy?

Where the population is so huge that it requires a greater social structure, then it has to be done. The US has created many social structures within democracy over the years beginning perhaps with education and continuing to health and retirement.
The mineral and petroleum, the same as land water, and forests, belong to the people and should have been nationalized to some extent from the beginning. The exploration companies used federal funds for purpose of finding and drilling to begin with, and still today are lavished with low interest loans while they are garnering unprecedented profits at the cost of the consumer who never gets near the same breaks.
Venezuela, recently, began a nationalizing of some of the private monopoly companies and it can be done!
Try to understand that the earth, including the US doesn't belong to private interest as long as 2 people have to exist on it!

[mdmc]

12. very true

thanks for posting

[Beaverhausen]

11. I saw a bit of his speech about this on CNN this morning

He is calling for hearings into it. Great idea!!!

[Coexist]

13. HA! kick 'em when they're down.

hee hee.

[Fovea]

14. Nationalize Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal.

Set the price to conservation, and use the revenue to help fund Mass transit and public health.

This might also spur development of Solar, and other renewable energy sources, as capital pursues new profit centers.

[Jim Warren]

15. Now yer talkin'

Use the proceeds from National Energy to fund the development of alternatives. A HUGE green economy, replete with employment, R+D, innovation and education is waiting just beyond the current circle of light.

[robinlynne]

21. I like your plan.

[iconoclastNYC]

17. Do you want Schumer killed?

LOL... that's communist stuff. :sarcasm:

The energy industry is a parasite that will kill it's host sooner or later (our economy, our planet)

[mdmc]

18. I want leadership!

before oil can kill us off!

[Vidar]

26. Agreed, but unfortunately unlikely.

[eallen]

19. I wish Democrats showed a bit more economic astuteness.

Does Schumer want to nationalize Dutch Royal Shell, British Petroleum, or Citgo? I guess that depends on whether he wants to piss off Queen Elizabeth, Queen Beatrix, or Hugo Chavez.

:evilgrin:

So, one more time into the breach:

(1) The US imports most of the oil it uses. US petroleum production peaked in 1972. Drilling every piece of land and shore between the north slope of Alaska and Key West will not bring it back to its highs.

(2) Oil is fungible commodity that trades on a fairly efficient global market.

(3) The price of oil has been rising due to supply not keeping up with demand. As India and China bring their economies into the modern world, their people want to drive cars, and power all the appliances that Americans take for granted. The US, with about 3% of the world's population, consumes 25% of the world's oil. What happens when China, with 25% of the world's population, starts increasing its consumption? Just what you're seeing.

The Democrats will fall into a trap if they pretend that rising oil prices are due to local politics rather than to global markets. Yeah, Nigeria, Iraq, and now Iran are threats to the global supply that affect the market. There will be more such. You would be hard pressed to look at a graph of oil price over the last ten years, and say: "here, Iran."

We need to be the party of reality as opposed to political spin. We need to say, "yep, and oil prices might keep rising, due to global conditions. We won't fool you into thinking there is a local political solution to that. But what we will do is accelerate the necessary move to conservation and alternate energy sources."

:hippie:

[jsamuel]

25. OIL COMPANIES SHUT REFINERIES TO DRIVE UP PROFITS

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1021779#1022126
OIL COMPANIES SHUT REFINERIES TO DRIVE UP PROFITS

Edited on Tue Apr-25-06 02:42 PM by underpants
You won't hear that from the oil industry.

Both links are dated September 7, 2005.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-court/memos-show-oil-companies-_b_6980.html

Take this internal Texaco strategy memo: "he most critical factor facing the refining industry on the West Coast is the surplus of refining capacity, and the surplus gasoline production capacity. (The same situation exists for the entire U.S. refining industry.) Supply significantly exceeds demand year-round. This results in very poor refinery margins and very poor refinery financial results. Significant events need to occur to assist in reducing supplies and/or increasing the demand for gasoline." The memo went on to discuss a successful campaign in Washington State to shrink refined supply by removing other additives in the gasoline that filled gas volume.

Another Mobil memo shows the company promoted tough regulations in California to shut down an independent refiner. A Chevron memo acknowledged the industry wide need to shutter refineries and discussed how refiners were responding in kind.

Internal Memos Show Oil Companies Intentionally Limited Refining Capacity To Drive Up Gasoline Prices

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/pr/?postId=5110

The three internal memos from Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco (Click here to read the memos.) show different ways the oil giants closed down refining capacity and drove independent refiners out of business. The confidential memos demonstrate a nationwide effort by American Petroleum Institute, the lobbying and research arm of the oil industry, to encourage the major refiners to close their refineries in the mid-1990s in order to raise the price at the pump.

[eallen]

29. Good for them. Consumerwatchdog gets it wrong, though....

Running more refineries at under capacity in the 1990s would have increased costs to the companies. Whether or not they could have passed those costs on to the consumer is a different matter. Competition might have prevented that. Or not, depending on what other companies did. I wonder, had the companies concerned had kept those plants open, if consumerwatchdog would have run a story, "oil companies keep costs high by keeping unneeded refineries online"?

BTW, the US imports refined products as well as crude. There are separate markets in both, which is why their prices don't vary in perfect harmony. Bush's comments about environmental regulations are bullshit. If environmental regulations in the US were more than the cost of shipping, the oil companies would simply move all their refining to Mexico or other places where the environmental regulation is less. (Which raises a whole 'nother set of issues.)

:hippie:

[jsamuel]

43. your confusing cost and supply

reducing supply does not increase costs, it reduces cost... It also (when orchestrated) raises demand as there is less supply. So, their cost is reduced and the prices goes higher, causing them to make the biggest profits in history.

[eallen]

45. No, you're confusing capacity and production.

[Strelnikov_]

39. Or Saudi Aramco Or PetroMexico Or Kuwait Or Nigeria Or Russia

To segway off your statement.

The 800 lb. gorilla most seem to overlook is that we import 65% of our petroleum from outside the country.

As you note, we are no longer energy self-sufficient, which means we are stuck with purchasing the majority of our petroleum on the world open market, at market prices. If we set price caps, this 65% will go to a higher bidder (Chindia anyone?)

We should move for more diversity/redundancy in the refining market, but I think this is a peripheral problem.

The only permanent solution to the oil trap we now find ourselves in is massive conservation measures coupled with development of redundant alternative energy sources and carriers to petroleum derived liquid fuels.

The longer the politicians play 'politics' with this issue, the further off implementation of a permanent solution is.

[jsamuel]

44. how much of our refined gas comes from outside the country already refined

how much of our gas do we refine in the US?

[Lusted4]

22. Whoooee Chuckie Baby can lob one out there every now and then

I like it.

[jarab]

27. Won't happen, imo ....

The disrespect shown by the oil execs when they lied to Congress merited some action then. It showed them they could get away with anything ... like what's happening right now.
All tardy BS by all the powers-that-be concerned.
...O...

[sweetheart]

28. Does he have similar feelings about financial concentration?

The wall street senator speaks precedent, so he must feel that
the concentration of ownership is a systemic problem to all
sectors, and the edge of the blade on oil, short term, unreplaceable
energy without significant investment in alternatives.

[Initech]

30. Big oil, big pharma, and big health - they all need to be broken up!

I'm tired of this shit. I'm tired of paying $37 for gas. I'm tired of paying $100 for medication that doesnt even work half the time. I'm tired of my health insurance fucking things up. I'm tired of it all. I stand with Schumer in this, I really do.

Oh and more importantly - over the last year, my biggest pet peeve to end all pet peeves is being labeled as a "consumer". I hate that label.

[mdmc]

31. how bout citizen consumer

:)

[Kolesar]

32. If you find a link on this it would be super

I know you just heard it on a broadcast. I'm encouraged to hear a Dem take on the energy industry.

[ProfessorGAC]

34. The Mistake Is The Word "COMPANIES"

Given the pricing structure, it's all one big company again. It isn't monopolies, it's MONOPOLY, as in ONE!
The Professor

[bigtree]

35. NJ is on fire!

[mtnsnake]

38. NJ?

[bigtree]

40. NY

:dunce:

[Binka]

36. It Is 1870 And Standard Oil All Over Again Whopee Robber Barons Are Back!

Interesting article in the economist here:
http://www.economist.com/business/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=5323688

[spanone]

37. Now we're talking.

[mdmc]

41. keep on !

Talk it up Chucky!