Students Against Oil Companies and Their Record Profits

I have just recorded a Facebook group with the name "Students Against Oil Companies and Their Record Profits" as a way to have civilized discourse about why oil prices are really so high. I hope that we can amass a large enough group to send a message to our congressmen and congresswoman that we want action. The message of the group is as follows.

This group seeks to unite students interested in the exploration of why, in the face of blame on OPEC for massive price increases at the pump, oil companies are making record profits?

We are not a group of liberals. We are not a group of conservatives. We are a group of people who drive cars. We are interested in the exploration of why the gas prices continue to go higher and what we can do to make them go lower.

In the 2nd quarter of 2006, Exxon-Mobil recorded profits of $10.4 billion, an increase of 36% over the same period last year. Royal Dutch Shell PLC recorded profits of $7.32 billion, a 40% increase. BP PLC reported its quarterly profit rose 30 percent to $7.3 billion. ConocoPhillips said its earnings rose 65% to $5.18 billion. Chevron rounds out the "big five" oil companies as the under-performer, increasing profits only 18% to $4.4 billion. All of this comes at the expense of you and me.

In an era when prices for services and products such as communication and computers are rapidly falling and quality is rapidly improving, the oil companies have driven the market in the other direction with little improvement. The price for a gallon of gas today is over $3.00. In January of 2005 gas prices were 72 cents a gallon. The average price for a gallon of gas four years ago was $1.36.

To put this all in prospective, Exxon-Mobil in the past year recorded a profit of $1,146 per second. That's enough to drive the average American car 10,294 miles. At the same time Exxon-Mobil committed three-hundredths of 1 percent of its profits ($10 million) to renewable energy.

Unfortunately, the United States government has been relatively quiet on this issue. The government needs to do something to protect its citizens. Excess profits tax? Price controls? Price gouging investigations? We need something.

In order to shake the government out of their long sleep in regards to this issue, we the students need to assemble.

Who's with me?

This comes as a response to Ralph Nader's challenge from his essay blog.

Tags: oil, Ralph Nader