Today is April fools day and unfortunately many people weren't celebrating the event. In the Pittsburgh PA area, and I'm sure many other parts of the country, many independent truckers spent their valuable time by the side of the road, with their motors off, holding signs protesting fuel costs.

In our area, diesel is now $4.28 a gal, and at that rate, many drivers are loosing money with every mile they drive. One driver, when asked by a reporter what he was going to do, said "When I can't make my payments, they'll take my truck. When they take my truck, I'll loose my job. When I loose my job, I won't be able to feed my family or pay for my house. When everything is gone, I'll be on welfare."

The world economy and markets dictate the pricing of fuel. This strike, while meaningful, will have little impact except to make everyone aware of the plight of the very people, of whom we have the most need. Without the truckers, our main transportation system would grind to a standstill. Every durable goods price would increase even more dramatically than we've already seen.

The heads of the oil companies met again before congress today, to explain why their profits are deserved.  Assuming that they do deserve their profits, then why do the tax payers have to pay out an additional 19 billion dollars every year to them in subsidies? Why couldn't that money be used to supplement the trucking industry, so that all of our standard of living is less adversely effected?

We can't control the costs of fuel, but we CAN take steps to alleviate a growing malady, that may be catastrophic to our economy.

Gard 

The growing malady is the 1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS spent or committed.....well, I've said enough...

http://zfacts.com/p/447.html

On Capitol Hill, Big Oil drilled with questions

Executives defend profits, tax breaks

BY H. JOSEF HEBERT • ASSOCIATED PRESS • April 2, 2008 - Detroit News/Free Press

WASHINGTON -- Executives of the nation's five biggest oil companies said Tuesday they know record fuel prices are hurting people, but they argued it's not their fault and said their huge profits are in line with other industries.

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Appearing before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, the executives were pressed to explain why they should continue to get billions of dollars in tax breaks when they made $123 billion last year and motorists are paying record gasoline prices.

"On April Fools' Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.

But J.S. Simon, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., said the industry depends on high earnings to sustain it during down cycles. His company made a record $40 billion profit last year.

"Our earnings, although high in absolute terms, need to be viewed in the context of the scale and cyclical, long-term nature of our industry as well as the huge investment requirements," Simon said.

The up cycle has been going on too long, suggested Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. "The anger level is rising significantly."

Democrats hammered the executives for their profits and demanded they do more to develop alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and biofuels. Republicans called for opening more areas for drilling to boost domestic production of oil and gas.

What would bring lower prices? asked Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the committee's ranking Republican.

"We need access to all kinds of energy supply," said Robert Malone, chairman of BP America, adding that 85% of the country's coastal waters are off-limits to drilling.

Markey challenged the executives to pledge to invest 10% of their profits to develop renewable energy and give up $18 billion in tax breaks over 10 years so money could be funneled to support other energy and conservation.

They responded that their companies already spend on alternative energy projects and argued that new taxes would dampen investment and could lead to even higher prices.

Over the past five years, Simon said, Exxon Mobil's U.S. tax bill exceeded its U.S. profits by $19 billion.

Markey wasn't impressed.

"These companies are defending billions of federal subsidies ... while reaping over a hundred billion dollars in profits in just the last year alone," he said. The companies are reaping "a windfall of revenue" while poor people have to choose between heating and eating.

 

Also check out this website:  http://www.topix.net/com/xom  Please read about the topics: Oil and Gas, Exxon Mobil, and Energy. 

 

Oh my gosh- now who in the heck GAVE the oil industry those tax breaks to begin with? the same oily congressmen how are now sitting up there in judgement of the industry. Who passed all those stupid environmental laws that caused diesel  prices to rie? the same oil congressmen sitting up there in judgement of the oil industry. And who has passed the laws taxing the price of fuel thats driving up the cost of diesel? the same oily congressmane who are now sitting in judgement against the oil industry.

if you want to lower the cost of fuel, eliminate the fuel taxes today. Eliminating the tax breaks will do nothing about the price of fuel- period. Federal, State, and local taxes are a large component of the retail price of gasoline. Taxes (not including county and local taxes) account for approximately 19 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline. Within this national average, Federal excise taxes are 18.4 cents per gallon and State excise taxes average about 21 cents per gallon. Also, eleven States levy additional State sales and other taxes, some of which are applied to the Federal and State excise taxes.

Once again- polticians are now taking advantage to get face time on TV standing up for the consumer when most of this mess is their fault to begin with. We should be draggin their butts into the ring asking them why they are pasing laws that raise the price of fuels. We should be investigting them of the corruption known as CONGRESS.

Nothing will come of this circus. Anyone who believe congress can actually solve problems is insane- remember these are the people who want to run your health care......

Tripper- why not eliminate all fossill fuels? Better for the environment....

Why not drill for MORE oil here in the USA,elimnate federal taxes and loosen environmental regualtionss and make feuls less expensive so everyone can benefit?

Fuel consumption dropped 1% in March. Showing that the higher fuel cost did affect at least some folks purchases of fuel.

Truckers are only a part of this. There are a lot of others who make their living  that requires fuel.  Farmers need fuel to put their crops into the ground, tend them and harvest them. My Brother-in-law is a dairy farmer and his milk prices again have been reduced as the buyer who buys his milk asorb the cost of fuel increases.  Milk increased in price at the store. but the farmer who produced it got paid less, and his cost to produce the milk went up.

The construction industry depends on heavy equipment. It's getting to where it's not profitable to even move a Trac Hoe, a Back Hoe, A dump truck to a new job site, let alone run it all day. And anybody working in that  business is driving a full size pickup, because we are towing.  It's not a matter that I need a full size truck for my horse trailer on Saturday, I need it every day.

The poor gas station owners are struggling. Big Oil may be making money. But the fellow who owns the corner gas station isn't. And 95% of the gas stations in the USA are independantly owned.  Most gas stations make more money on a cup of coffee than they do on a gallon of gas. Couple that with the Credit Card fees they pay on $4.00 a gallon diesel fuel and the occassional drive off, they are not making any money on fuel. Most refineries require that they pay for the fuel before it's unloaded. Take delivery of a 12,000 gallon tanker and they are writting a check for close to $48,000. And last weeks tank of fuel generated less in total sales. So because fuel prices jumps so fast, they are writting checks out for more money than they got for the last load.

I just don't see that the truckers deserve any special consideration more than a lot of other groups. And fuel is not out of line compared to what I paid for it years ago. I mean it has increased from $.60 a gallon in the late 70's to $4.00 a gallon 30 years later. Thats not much inflation vs everything else. It's just that it all come in the last year or two.  Energy will be a higher percentage of our budgets from now on. We may stop or slow down building such big homes for ourselves. Families may go back to a  1400 sf home in place of the 2400sf ramblers. We may eat at home more and less in fancy resturants. We may start taking our lunch to work with us instead of eating at McDonnalds. Your morning coffee may come from your coffee pot and StarBucks. All this because our energy needs now cost us 12% of our budget instead of 6%.

I pity the truckers, the working people of this country, and we horse people who just want to get away on weekends with our diesel trucks once in a while... We thought we had a handle on organized crime in the USA... HA!! Gangsters are runnin the government now and we have to pick a new one this year... put some stampede strings on your cowboy hat 'cause yur gonna needum...for the ride we're on now!

Dear folks;

I am not suggesting that Obama and Rev. Wright *wrong- should take over...In fact, I'm not sure which one of the three stooges should.

Huh? Translation Please.

What the hell is "ells"? Something you eat?

The Republican controlled Congress

That's right, 10 years ago when oil was $10 a barrel. I guess you think that was a bad idea? Granted it should have been removed when the price point became profitable, that would have been about the time that the ragheads flew some planes into a few buildings of ours. If we had been smart we could have repealed the tax, spent the cash on a few Nukes and eliminated the problem, you know nuclear explosion in all that sand would have made the worlds largest punch bowl, but the Democrats would rather have our boys not piss nobody off, tie their hands behind their backs and tell them to fight a war, but don't upset anyone.

Believe me I know how they are having to fight over there, I'm an Ex-Marine and I have a nephew over there now.