Kick the Oil Habit road trip visits Exxon HQ.
By on Jul 18th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
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This is great. America needs to reduce it’s dependency on foreign oil. If not for the environment, then for the sake of national security and the domestic economy. How long will we let huge corporations dictate our quality of life by dolling out a controlled substance.
July 18th, 2006 at 10:41 pmIt’s time we took the petroleum industry out of the hands of the corporate war mongers so they will not be able to use our sons and daughters for bottom line profits.
July 18th, 2006 at 10:58 pmI read Jared Diamonds book Collapse. It studied various societies that had collapsed. One common theme was, the destruction of vital natural sources of a societies maintenance (such as forrests). I was thinking that could never happen here (the US). Then he got onto another theme, and that was too much dependence on one commodity, and I felt a chill. Where would we be without oil tomorrow. Then I thought of another theme of the book: a common response to societal collapse is cannibilism. Yummy. Love thy neighbor… with a dash of basil.
July 18th, 2006 at 10:59 pmMaybe TP libs should protest Harry Reid and John Kerry for hoarding Exxon stock in the late 90’s and after 911 when their stock price was low.
You can send your complaints to:
paranoidlibs@dnc.org
Please be polite.
July 18th, 2006 at 11:26 pmIt’s time we took the petroleum industry out of the hands of the corporate war mongers so they will not be able to use our sons and daughters for bottom line profits.
Comment by Nat_As — July 18, 2006
Hmm, that sound like something I’ve heard before. Ah yes, here it is
Mussolini, the father of fascism:
“Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power.â€
Nat_us, I see you’re found the right place to share your fascist ideas.
July 18th, 2006 at 11:36 pmNat makes sense…minnie sounds NUTS….
July 18th, 2006 at 11:41 pmAll the Oil Cartel CEOs should be arrested and given 20 years to life prison terms! They have swindled billions of dollars from American citizens, so all their assets should be confiscated, and all their refineries and ships seized by the government!
July 18th, 2006 at 11:51 pmThanks for the shout out, ThinkProgress! I hope everybody enjoys following us on the road trip, and feel free to leave comments on our blog.
I’m writing from Wyoming this evening, and we’re worried we’re going to run out of E85 before we get to Salt Lake City tomorrow…
July 19th, 2006 at 1:30 amEthanol is a band-aid and is not the answer.
July 19th, 2006 at 9:33 amGreat job guys, but the real corporate HQ for Exxon is in Irving Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Still, your trip is very signifigant and might wake a few folks up to the real problem.
July 19th, 2006 at 10:27 am#2 – “It’s time we took the petroleum industry out of the hands of the corporate war mongers so they will not be able to use our sons and daughters for bottom line profits.”
Nationalize the oil industry?
so all their assets should be confiscated, and all their refineries and ships seized by the government!
Of course Socialist Jay agrees…
You advocate making oil industry to be a national monopoly. Do you see how silly that sounds?
Do you know the abysmal track record of government monopolies – in every industry from telephone service to education. Think prices are high now? Upset with the lack of innovation? Just imagine a monopoly! Ha!
July 19th, 2006 at 10:38 amBig Oil IS already a monopoly, since there are NO alternatives to gasoline.
July 19th, 2006 at 10:46 amtime we took the petroleum industry out of the hands of the corporate war mongers so they will not be able to use our sons and daughters for bottom line profits.
Comment by Nat_As — July 18, 2006
Hmm, that sound like something I’ve heard before. Ah yes, here it is
Mussolini, the father of fascism:
“Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power.â€
Nat_us, I see you’re found the right place to share your fascist ideas.
Comment by memphis minnie — July 18, 2006 @ 11:36 pm
Minnie – in case you haven’t noticed, “corporatism (fascism) is alive and well in the U.S. Congress and the administration’s policies (private security companies in Iraq, billions paid to Haliburton, etc. for support services, reconstruction, etc. in both Iraq and New Orleans)…I could go on and on. The military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about IS and has been a reality in the U.S. since the 50’s. Only difference now, is that it is multinational and global in nature.
July 19th, 2006 at 11:20 amBig Oil IS already a monopoly, since there are NO alternatives to gasoline.
Comment by DieNowForPeace — July 19, 2006 @ 10:46 am
Not really. There are other energy alternatives, but they don’t have nearly the lobby, the momentum or the reach of oil.
A level playing field would leave oil (with it’s tendency to pollute and political risks) in the dust. Unfortunatley, the playing field isn’t level, so oil gets something of a free ride. In that kind of situation you need some form of government intervention to get the alternatives over the hump of advantage that oil enjoys. Once past, they’ll kick it’s ass.
July 19th, 2006 at 11:25 amOil companies are cartels Chase > they screw over everybody for profits! Better to nationalize that industry and use the profits for the American people!
July 19th, 2006 at 11:36 am#15 – Jay – I beg of you to find an economics text and read about the lost efficiencies, the structural disincentives for innovation, etc associated with national monopolies.
It’s plainly a horrible idea.
What’s more, American oil companies are not a cartel. National oil companies (as in OPEC) are a cartel.
Look at Table 1 in this document (it’s a little less than half-way down). Although the year is 1997, the percentages have likely not changed much.
As you can see, oil production is spread among many companies worldwide. In fact, only 3 of the top 10 are “American” oil companies.
My point: they don’t have the power to “corner the market”. They don’t have the ability to form a cartel. It’s just that simple.
July 19th, 2006 at 11:49 amWhoops. Here’s the link. http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/FTPROOT/presentations/hrtest624/hrtest624.html#tab1
July 19th, 2006 at 11:49 amLol Chase the Oil companies are cartels! OPEC is just an association of those cartels! I have NOT seen innovation from Chevron, Exxon, Shell, etc lately > lol.
July 19th, 2006 at 12:04 pm#18 – Did you follow the link? Did you look at the chart? If you had even a basic understanding of cartel, oligopoly and game theory you would understand exactly why it would be impossible for the American oil companies to operate as a cartel.
1. Because there are so many producers of oil world wide, and not one of them has more than 15% of the total, the number of producers outside the control of the supposed cartel is too great. Cartels only work, in theory, where there are very few members of a good with almost no outside substitute. Because oil is a natural commodity produced by hundreds of corporations worldwide, Amercan companies have no hope of limiting supply.
2. Cartels fix prices. Not only have allegations of price fixing been repudiated, it is unlikely an attempt to price fix would be successful. The incentive to “cheat” the cartel is too great. If companies A, B and C have decided to charge $75 dollars per barrel of oil (a homogeneous product with no differentiation) company B would be wise to lower it’s price to $74.20 a barrel. If they did, against the cartel, the demand for their oil would skyrocket, as would their profits. This would lead the others to drop their prices to compete and get back market share. This would continue until the price met the short-run average cost of production. (I am assuming that the production cost per barrel of oil is much less than $75).
By the way, jackass, OPEC is a classic cartel (along with debeers, one of the few long-term successful cartels).
Even in OPEC, you see the above, cartel cheating, behavior (from time to time we hear about an OPEC producer violating the production quotas. They are usually admonished severely.)
The point: American oil companies are not a cartel. Even if they wanted to be, and most business would love to be in a cartel, they have no chance whatsoever.
July 19th, 2006 at 12:19 pmChase the Oil companies have always operated as cartels > Standard Oil was the first monopoly company in America > price fixing is the norm at the pumps everywhere! OPEC is an association of Oil producers like Saudi Arabia in conjunction with the oil companies!
Not a wise thing Chase to defend the Oil industry > you have seen a pic of that fat slug Mr. Raymond the former CEO of Exxon on TP threads before! Very greedy guy!
July 19th, 2006 at 12:35 pm#20 – You are hopeless.
July 19th, 2006 at 12:42 pmOut of curiosity Jay, did you look at the damn chart?
What did that say to you? This is like an ink-blot test.
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April 11th, 2008 at 10:27 pm