Big Oil

IS IT ME, or does the price of gas go up at every gas station around the same time, the same day, practically the same amount? These actions are what anti-trust laws are for, to protect the consumer from these actions by hucksters like Big Oil price-fixing over a game of golf. Now that there's more oil than ever before, what do they do to manipulate the price - they cut back on production! They expect us to believe that on dozens of ships filled with oil waiting to be off-loaded that the oil "went bad. " They creep up the price, just seeing how far they can push.

NEW YORK - After a run-up of more than 85 cents a gallon in the last three months to just shy of $4, average U.S. pump prices are about to start falling and could hit $3.50 by summer. Relief will come soon - though you probably won't see much change this weekend - because oil prices fell 15 percent this week, the steepest decline in 21/2 years. Oil hit a two-year high of $114.83 a barrel in Monday's trading. It closed Friday at $97.18. The plunge was part of a sharp sell-off in commodities this week.

MEMORIAL Day has to be their favorite holiday. Not because they historically hike the price at the pump over the long weekend, but because they have the most powerful nation on earth to defend their practice of gouging the American people at the pump. They should really reduce the price over this weekend by 75 percent or more so people can afford to make the trip to pay tribute to the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. Shame on you, Big Oil. Joseph Carlin, Philadelphia

IT APPEARS that even the judiciary is in the hip pocket of the unconscionable oil conglomerates. While the Gulf debacle is getting tragically worse, federal Judge Martin Feldman remains ignorant of the glaring sad facts. Did he not read the same reports we did that all the oil companies have the same inadequate emergency plan as BP does? Why does he choose to ignore these findings when ruling against the Obama administration's drilling moratorium? Does he know whether the other wells have implemented the latest safety standards and equipment that were lacking on BP's?

OUR ENERGY policy resembles the strategy employed by a little kid who holds her hands over her ears while humming loudly so as to keep from hearing something she doesn't want to hear. It doesn't work for 6-year-olds - and it won't work for a nation that turns 232 next month. A gallon of gas now costs $4+ and is on its way to $5. The rapid increase in prices over the past few months has triggered a downward economic spiral. Our dependence on foreign oil has taken our national security out of our own hands and placed it into the palms of Middle Eastern dictators and Venezuelan eccentrics.

The parade of oil companies reporting huge increases in profits for late 1990 continued last week, as critics fumed about profiteering from the Persian Gulf crisis and the firms themselves headed for shelter. Citizen Action, a Washington consumers group, termed the companies' profits "obscene and outrageous. " "The companies have taken advantage of the situation again and earned money at the consumer's expense," said Edwin S. Rothschild, the group's energy-policy director.

"May I say to you that we have quite a good chance to survive. " "Our own view is that the labor-market recovery will be a grudging one, that consumers will enjoy only modest gains in wages and salaries for some time, and that consumer-spending growth will therefore prove disappointing. " - economist Joshua Shapiro "You won't lose votes bashing banks or big oil. There are real concerns about the impact of the spill on the economy and environment in the gulf, but politicians haven't worked out that BP is probably capable of making a 100 percent effort on the spill and also maintaining the dividend.

With gasoline prices averaging $1.70 across the nation, Americans are suffering another conniption fit over "Big Oil. " But the widespread conviction that oil monopolies are forever robbing us blind is little more than an urban myth. For starters, if Big Oil companies are indeed behind this price spiral, why did they decide to gouge Californians (where prices are nearing $2 a gallon) and not, say, motorists in Atlanta (where prices are hovering around $1.50)? Do they just have it in for motorists in some parts of the country but not others?

The Exxon oil people 'fessed up to one of the worst environmental crimes of the century last week, cutting short what might have become years of litigation by admitting to "negligent discharge" of 10 million gallons of crude into the sparkling, fish-abundant waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound. We don't know if the $100 million in criminal fines Exxon agreed to pay in the blundering voyage of the Exxon Valdez is precisely the right amount. Indeed, it's a fraction of the cost in damaged fisheries and shoreline.

Derrick Z. Jackson writes for the Boston Globe It took five years, the deaths of 4,100 U.S. soldiers, and the wounding of 30,000 more to make Iraq safe for Exxon. It is the inescapable open question since the reasons given by President Bush for the invasion and occupation did not exist - neither the weapons of mass destruction nor Saddam Hussein's ties to al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The New York Times reported that several Western oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, BP and Chevron, are about to sign no-bid contracts with the Iraqi government.

Question: After regular service by my heating-oil provider, I was told our tank is showing some rust on the bottom and will need to be replaced. Aside from wishing to avoid such an expense, there also is a logistical concern. My 113-year-old home has a small stairwell with a landing-and-turn that is even more limited in size. I have no idea how they managed to get our old, 275-gallon tank down there. One contractor suggested replacing it with a smaller 130-gallon tank, but even that may not fit. Another suggestion was to remove the old tank and convert to a gas-fired boiler, but despite potential long-term fuel savings, the upfront costs are too prohibitive.

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats tried Tuesday to channel public anger at $4-a-gallon gasoline into passing a bill to repeal federal tax breaks and subsidies for five major oil companies, but they fell short. After bashing Big Oil in a hearing last week, Senate Democrats mustered fewer than the 60 votes they needed under Senate rules to move the bill to a final vote. The final count was 52-48. Three Democrats - Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Begich of Alaska, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska - voted against the measure.

WASHINGTON - Motorists are paying around $4 for a gallon of gasoline while the oil industry reaps pretax profits that could hit $200 billion this year. That makes another big number hard to take: $4.4 billion. That's how much the oil industry saves every year through tax breaks intended to promote domestic drilling. That was the background Thursday for a Senate hearing that flogged oil-company chief executive officers - and no senator bothered to pretend it was about making gasoline prices more affordable or helping the economy recover from the recession.

ABOUT 300 million years ago, as closely as we can reckon, sea algae and giant ferns died and began to be pressure-cooked beneath the Earth's surface. Some 150 million years later in the Cretaceous period, reptiles the size of construction cranes started dropping like flies, and their decaying carcasses were added to this primordial ooze. Today, their refined remains are going for $4 a gallon, assuring dinosaur-size profits for an industry that has grown bloated on this Paleozoic windfall.

NEW YORK - After a run-up of more than 85 cents a gallon in the last three months to just shy of $4, average U.S. pump prices are about to start falling and could hit $3.50 by summer. Relief will come soon - though you probably won't see much change this weekend - because oil prices fell 15 percent this week, the steepest decline in 21/2 years. Oil hit a two-year high of $114.83 a barrel in Monday's trading. It closed Friday at $97.18. The plunge was part of a sharp sell-off in commodities this week.

KNOW HOW much a Tomahawk cruise missile costs? Various military websites put the price at around $1.2 million. As of yesterday, we had tossed 161 of these 18-foot long, 2,600-pound puppies into Libya. That's $193 million in a couple of days, just for missiles. Know what an F-15 fighter-jet costs? An F-15E Strike Eagle, like the one that crashed in Libya yesterday (without injury to crew), cost $31.1 million. Defense analysts say that the overall price of our presence in Libya is a nice round $100 million a day. And that presence is described as a humanitarian effort to protect civilians as part of a United Nations resolution and not, I repeat, not a war. Are you effin' kidding me?

The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on legislation that would restore some openness to an increasingly secretive campaign finance system. The Disclose Act would require corporations, labor unions, and a proliferation of misleading "nonprofit" groups to report their campaign expenses and donors. This measure is needed more than ever because of the Supreme Court's decision that allows corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts to influence federal elections. A bill has already passed the House, but it stalled in the Senate over the summer.

IT APPEARS that even the judiciary is in the hip pocket of the unconscionable oil conglomerates. While the Gulf debacle is getting tragically worse, federal Judge Martin Feldman remains ignorant of the glaring sad facts. Did he not read the same reports we did that all the oil companies have the same inadequate emergency plan as BP does? Why does he choose to ignore these findings when ruling against the Obama administration's drilling moratorium? Does he know whether the other wells have implemented the latest safety standards and equipment that were lacking on BP's?

"May I say to you that we have quite a good chance to survive. " "Our own view is that the labor-market recovery will be a grudging one, that consumers will enjoy only modest gains in wages and salaries for some time, and that consumer-spending growth will therefore prove disappointing. " - economist Joshua Shapiro "You won't lose votes bashing banks or big oil. There are real concerns about the impact of the spill on the economy and environment in the gulf, but politicians haven't worked out that BP is probably capable of making a 100 percent effort on the spill and also maintaining the dividend.

IT SEEMS that almost every front page of the city's newspapers is about dirty cops or crime that's out of control. So it was extremely refreshing to read about Officer Richard Riddick receiving the Fencl Award. It's easy to forget that an officer's job is to protect and serve, and that a majority do that admirably. I don't disagree with the criticisms made against police officers. If an officer engages in corrupt behavior, the public has every right to know. But it's just as important that the public know when an officer is honored for doing his job correctly.