How can the oil companies keep raising the gas prices and the Government can't stop them?

I know it is against the law to ';Price Fix'; but it is not against the law to ';Make profit';. If the oil companies agree that their prices will not be too far ahead or behind their competitors, why is that not ';Price Fixing';? They are all making hugh profits but the Government can't do anything about it because the oil companies have not broken any laws. Why doesn't the Government ';Wire Tap'; some of these oil companies and catch them with ';Price Fixing';? I know they can do wire tap because it goes on every day. Are the Government Representatives being bought off by the oil companies to stay out of the accounting books? Interesting thoughts have been going thru my head lately and I wonder if anyone else things the same?How can the oil companies keep raising the gas prices and the Government can't stop them?
First of all, I'm not sure you understand the difference between ';price fixing'; and ';making a profit';.





Price fixing is an agreement between competitors to set the price of a commodity at an artificially high level. There's NO evidence whatsoever that this is what is taking place with gas prices at the pump.





Gas prices are largely affected by the price per barrel of crude - which is fixed by the markets on an international level and NOT by the gas companies.





If you want to place blame on the high gas prices, look no further than the fact that NO NEW REFINERIES have been built in the last 20 years, thanks largely to the liberal tree-hugging conservationist environmental wackos, who have rammed environmental legislation down the throats of Americans, and which has resulted in the cost, location and actual building of a new refinery being so high it's prohibitive.





Meanwhile, gas demand has skyrocketed in the last two decades. Refineries are operating at peak capacity. Add into the mix that some of the refineries damaged by Katrina and Rita last year haven't returned to full production yet and you've got HIGH demand and LOW supply. From an economics standpoint, that means high fuel prices at the pumps.





Europeans have been paying MUCH higher prices at the pumps for years. Americans need to get over it. We live in a capitalist society, and oil companies are the ones who take the financial risk of importing/exporting/refining/distributin鈥?petroleum. It stands to reason that for shouldering that risk that they should (from a capitalist standpoint) be the ones to reap the profits to be made as a result of the risk.





If you don't like gas prices, drive less.How can the oil companies keep raising the gas prices and the Government can't stop them?
The American people are looking at the wrong outlet for help.





Here are some facts: When you spend money at the pump, the US government gets $0.45 for every dollar that you spend. The oil companies get an average of $.12 per dollar.





In this situation the government profits most because of terrifs and taxation. And the people are looking to the ';enemy'; for help. The government will never cease to tax oil. The price of oil is determined by OPEC. If we started determining our own price per barrel (IE, using our own resources) then maybe we could dictate the price at the pump. But until then, we have to depend on the Saudis to dictate our gas prices.
Are you kidding? The government, the oil companies and the Arab Nations are all in this together. Ok, here's a thought. Reports in the paper last week (April 23-29) stated that the higher prices for gas were a result of Iran saying that they were going to purposely withhold oil in order to drive up the price of gasoline. The article had a chart of buyers of Iranian oil. The USA was NOT a buyer! If the USA doesn't buy buy oil from Iran why would that make the price go up ??
Capitalism: money buys everything and everyone.





In this case, the government has been bought and staffed by oil companies. They even give OUR money to those same RICH companies (we subsidize those companies with tax breaks). I assume they really need it!?!?!????
Supply and Demand,


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