Leaked Memos

A Consumer Watchdog group has released leaked memos from Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco. These memos expose a dirty little tactic that these gas companies have been using to make use profits. Let me make an analogy first.

Let's pretend that I am the owner of an apple farm. I have 10 acres full of apples, and I am the only apple dealer in town. Everyone buys their apples from me. So, I sell these apples for 50 cents each. I make quite a lot of money off of these apples because I have 10 acres full of them. Now one day I get a good idea. I decide to tell everyone that I now only have 5 acres of apples, so I have to raise my prices to $1 per apple. I'm making the same amount of money, they're paying more, and I still have my extra 5 acres, I'm just pretending they're not there.

This is what these companies are doing. They are purposely getting refineries shut down and intentionally limiting the capacity of their refineries in order to artificially inflate prices. Like I've been saying all along, they are creating the fucking demand. The fucking oil companies, along with the greedy capitalist pigs who fully support this sort of behavior constantly give the same excuse. They blame taxes and they blame environmental regulations. Too bad they're wrong. If a company that makes billions of dollars a quarter want a fucking refinery, they will get a fucking refinery. Hello, logic.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights released memos from the big 3 oil and gas companies that clearly indicate an effort by the American Petroleum Institute to influence major refiners to close some of their refiners to the oil industry as a whole can make larger profits. It's team work! Take a look at this quote.

"Large oil companies have for a decade artificially shorted the gasoline market to drive up prices," said Jamie Court, president of the FTCR, who successfully fought to keep Shell Oil from needlessly closing its Bakersfield, Calif., refinery this year. "Oil companies know they can make more money by making less gasoline. Katrina should be a wakeup call to America that the refiners profit widely when they keep the system running on empty."

Looks like Shell is in on the action also. Why would Shell possibly want to close one of their own refineries? Gas prices have been soaring this year. The most common given reason is supply and demand. So if there is such an absolutely massive demand issue, then why would Shell possibly want to close one of their refineries? Wouldn't that create more demand? Of course it would create more demand, and of course it would create more profit.

But that's ok, right? It's ok for these guys to do this sort of thing because this is America and we have a free market and capitalism and greed rules supreme. Well I call bullshit. To do this with apples or computers would be perfectly fine. To do this sort of thing with gasoline is absolutely wrong, and profit caps need to be introduced. Fuck the shareholders. Americans are getting absolutely raped at the pump while ExxonMobil is making 110 million dollars a day. That's net fucking profit, folks. Who in their right mind, without greed and dollar signs in place of their pupils, can actually justify $110 million profit a day when Americans are suffering because of these gas prices? No one can, and something needs to be done fast to stop this sort of behavior. Even if they don't cap profits, at least force them to maximize their refineries and prevent them from intentionally inflating demand.

Let's take a look at these memos. I'll have to get out my Sick Translation book, because these executive assholes have a funny way of saying things in a real tricky way. (Article here)

A senior analyst at the recent API convention warned that if the U.S. petroleum industry doesn't reduce its refining capaity, it will never see any substantial increase in refining margins.

Translation: Some guy who is smarter than me gave me a really good idea. He told me that if we can make our inventory really low, we can create more demand, and create a higher price. We sell gas for christ's sake. We can charge $10 a gallon and people would buy it because they need it. Let's get rich, bitches. Whaddya say?

It's beyond clear from reading these memos: Something needs to be done. We can't be ripped off like this when it comes to one of the most essential needs in life. This is fucking gas, and it's the blood of the American economy. I'm so sick of greedy rich people calling free market and playing the capitalism card. If you were dying, and the biotech company that made the cure for your medicine raised the price so you could barely afford it, I wonder if you'd still be claiming free market.

The fact of the matter is, these companies can do this. They can charge $10 a gallon and we would have no choice but to pay it. They just keep pushing the envelope. The last thing they want is legislature governing their prices and profits or huge tax increases on their profits. Like the American public, the just slowly but surely push the envelope and people seem to only get pissed when it goes up $.80 overnight. It's like watching a kitten grow. Every few days, you sort of notice it grew and you say "Wow, he's getting big." If the kitten grew to the size of a 2 year old cat overnight, I bet you'd shit yourself. That's what we have here. We have a lack of people shitting themselves.

Only one thing is going to stop these oil companies like ExxonMobil from making 110 million dollars a day. Only one thing is going to stop them from making $8 billion this quarter. That's a 3 month span, and it's fucking obscene. The government needs to step in and handle this. There is no constitutional right to a free market. There is no constitutional right to absolutely rip off every single person who needs gas, which is pretty much everyone. It needs to be stopped, and it needs to be stopped fast. It's just completely out of hand now, and they have taken off the gloves. They are now 100% confident that we will pay these prices. All we can do is fax or email or local government, and that is probably futile.

In the end, we're at the mercy of people who have no souls, and are driven by only greed.