i just did me a search on oil profits
here is the link
WWW LinkWhy are oil company profits so large?
Profits of major oil companies in 2005 and 2006 were considerably higher than in previous years. The big percentage increase helped support the impression that oil profits are excessive. But business analysts stress that other measures should be considered in assessing a company's or industry's profit picture. One important measure is profit margin – net income (profits) divided by sales. In the case of oil and gas companies, total sales consist of the money they receive from selling their products as well as revenue received from any other sources. Net income is the money left over after all costs and taxes are paid.
In recent years, oil profits generally have remained on a par with or slightly above those of other major industries. As the chart indicates, an analysis of data from 2000 through 2005 shows that the average profitability of oil and natural gas companies (5.9cents per dollar of sales)2 has been slightly above the profitability of all industries combined.
2 Not to be confused with profit margin on each gallon of gasoline sold, as described in the first question.
there is also a chart on that page comparing oil profits to other industries and on that chart comes in 6th place out of 7
i would put that chart here but i don't know how
and here is a pick and choose from that page as well
Shouldn't the government regulate oil profits?
A report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) that surveyed the events in the 25 years following the 1973-74 oil embargo concluded that federal price controls and allocations systems not only "failed to resolve these problems (electricity brownouts and rapidly rising prices), they seemed to aggravate them."
and it says that the majority of those huge profits are used to go out and find and drill for more oil.
so yes lets cut the profits from the oil companies so they can't find more resources
How do consumers know that oil companies aren’t price gouging?
The U.S. government has investigated gasoline prices about 30 times over the last 20 years but oil companies were never found to have “fixed” prices. Most recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) completed an exhaustive study of alleged market manipulation to increase gasoline prices in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina late last summer. The FTC report, released in May 2006, included these findings:
No evidence that refiners manipulated prices by running refineries below full production capacity, restricting gasoline production or diverting gasoline from the U.S. market to less lucrative foreign markets.
No evidence to suggest refinery expansion decisions over the past 20 years resulted from either unilateral or coordinated attempts to manipulate prices.
No evidence to suggest companies reduced inventories to increase or manipulate prices or exacerbate price spikes.
No situations that might allow one firm – or a small collusive group – to manipulate gasoline futures prices by using storage assets to restrict gasoline movements into New York Harbor, the key delivery point for gasoline.
i believe that the last 20 years also includes clinton
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