Is It Big Oil or Gas Stations that are Fleecing America?
A couple of weeks ago, American oil companies were summoned to Washington DC to testify (Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee) about gas prices that have not gone down despite the price per barrel receding. The silly questions were a dime a dozen but there were some serious lawmakers that tried to get answers. Several Democrats on the committee asked hard questions while the Republicans simply blamed the Biden Administration for all of our gas woes. What troubles me about this interaction is that the Republicans on this committee were so hell-bent on blaming anyone else except the executives and retailers who have been keeping the gas prices high that they forgot that many Americans are being forced to choose between food and gas. Their only interest was focusing on the Biden administration and not the issue at hand. Like a lot of things in Washington nothing got done and several weeks later Americans are still paying at the pump for their ineptitude.
And it’s not just Republicans, Democrats largely in power have done nothing to relieve the pain on American families. They could have done away with the gas taxes on both the state and federal levels (some states have done so). They could have applied pressure on the big oil companies to set gas prices based on the price per barrel and they could have shined the spotlight on the issue every day as they have done for the war in Ukraine. But weeks have passed and Americans are still paying their hard-earned dollars to the big oil companies. During the hearing, a Republican Senator asked the oil company executives if they were ripping off Americans to which every last one responded NO. Did he actually expect any of them to admit that they had been inflating gas prices? Of course not, this Senator along with others made a mockery of the inquiry and did nothing to protect his constituents. At least Representative Diana DeGette questioned the industry receiving billions in tax subsidies from the American people and doing nothing to help those Americans at the pump. Gretchen Watkins, President of Shell Oil said that gas stations control prices at the pump, not oil companies. But what she did not say was that oil companies made more profits last year than they did in eight years and that they stand to make more this year. What did the oil companies do with that revenue? They spent it on dividends to their shareholders and on buybacks of their shares to their companies, not on increasing production as some Republican lawmakers on that committee claimed. Those claims may have something to do with the nearly four hundred thousand dollars that committee members received as political contributions from the oil industry. With 97% of that money going to the Republican members of the committee. Get where this is going
Yet in the eastern United States, gas has remained at over $4.00 a gallon, and in the Western States at over $5.00 a gallon. Notwithstanding 30 billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies to the oil industry and a 9% drop in the price of oil per barrel ($102.11 per barrel). Industry experts maintain that the price per barrel will continue to decline with Iran signaling that it would increase production and with many countries releasing oil from their reserves. The lame response by oil companies that retail stations determine the price at the pump is just another excuse for those companies not to monitor the industry for price gouging. As industry suppliers, they have as much responsibility for the prices we are paying as the local gas station. Yes, they do not control the price of crude oil but they do control the costs associated with refining that oil and what the price for that refined oil will be when it gets to the retailer. There is a connection. And yet, neither lawmakers nor oil executives have done anything to prevent retailers from taking advantage of the American people. Any wonder whose interest they are serving? I will leave that up to you…
