The findings support a conclusion reached by many motorists.
Fifty-five percent of Americans believe that gas prices are high
because oil companies manipulate them, a Pew Research Center poll
found in October.
The oil business has been a profitable one.
The six biggest refiners had $400 billion in profits since 2001,
according to Public Citizen, a consumer group, and corporate reports.
Shell portrayed its Bakersfield refinery as old and unfit and said no
attempts would be made to find a buyer.
Skeptics like Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., suspected that Shell wanted to
shut the refinery to sell pricier gas from its bigger refineries
elsewhere.
"They were trying to squeeze the market in every possible way," Wyden
said.
From The Associated Press, 11/26/06:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/16102462.htm
Review suggests Big Oil manipulated gas prices
By JEFF DONN
The Associated Press
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -
You'd think it was Texas.
Dusty roads course the scrubland toward oil tanks and warehouses.
Beefy men talk oil over burritos at lunch.
Like grazing herds, oil wells dip nonstop amid the tumbleweeds.
That's why the rumor sounded so wrong here in California's lower San
Joaquin Valley, where petroleum has produced more riches than the gold
rush.
Why would Shell Oil Co. close its Bakersfield refinery?
Why scrap a profit maker?
The rumor seemed to make no sense.
Yet it was true.
The company says it can make more money on other projects.
It denies that it intended to squeeze the market to drive up profits
at its other refineries, as its critics claim.
Whatever the truth in Bakersfield, an Associated Press analysis
suggests that big oil companies have been crimping supplies across the
country for years.
And tighter supplies tend to drive up prices.
The analysis, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information
Administration, shows that the industry slacked off supplying gasoline
during the price boom between early 1999 and last summer.
___________________________________________________________________
The Democrats might wanna investigate this.
Harry
.
|
