Re: Are Big Oil Conspiracies Really Off-Base?

[John Coviello]

Title: Message

The way I see it, our dependence on oil is the product of one of the most far flung social engineering projects ever undertaken.  From dismantling trolley lines in the early 20th Century to ensuring auto efficiency standards do not put too much pressure on the demand side of oil, to providing $10 Billions of federal monies each year to protect oil supplies overseas militarily, the federal government has engineered our dependence on oil and has put alternative energy technologies and transportation modes at a marketplace disadvantage.   If there was enough need for new refining facilities, they would get built.  We are now building LNG facilities, we have continued to build power plants all over the place.  New refiniers aren't being built because the industry either doesn't want them to put more supplies on the market and depress prices or more likely they don't see a return on investment for a product that will price itself out of the market within a decade or two.  From: Zell, Chris To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 4:32 PM Subject: RE: Are Big Oil Conspiracies Really Off-Base?   Are Big-Oil Conspiracies off base?   YES! If any of you really think that oil companies are outrageously profitable, YOU ARE FREE TO BUY THEIR STOCK and share in the profits accordingly.  I don't, because I find them too risky.   Since 1977, government tax revenues on oil have been twice what oil company profits have been.  If every successful company becomes a target for Congressional Thieves, then let's steal some of that $25-40 billion that Microsoft is holding - or tax the unwarranted rise in Google stock value.   Better yet,  the recent rise in your home's value is clearly a "windfall"  - let's have a special tax on that.   Oil is extremely risky since, if you invest enormous amounts of money and work to develop fields, some third world dictator will nationalize the property or demand new concessions, destroying your intended projections.  Or your best workers get kidnapped by local insurgents - Or you can't find any skilled petroleum engineers that aren't ready for retirement.-  Or you put $60 a barrel oil in storage while the Saudis decide to move the price down to $40 a barrel. ( all real, reported issues)   And refineries?  A refinery is almost impossible to build due to NIMBYism.  Barron's ran an article on this months ago.  If we aren't careful, NIMBYism will kill off windmills, too.     Oil has been cheap for a long time, particularily because the swing producers, the Saudis, have kept it that way to prevent alternative development and the US public has little stomach for sacrifice.