i can think of several dozen privately held oil and gas companies off
the top of my head that many people have probably never heard of.  some
have fewer than a dozen employees.  independent oil comapnies produce
40% of the oil that americans consume.  i'm sure many of them would love
to be clever enough to conspire to fix prices, but the only reason they
are making money is because of the open market.

the boogeyman (boogeypeople?) are american voters, who are unable to
vote for something that will cost money in the short term.  i'm not
against regulation at all, it's the only way we'll ever be able to move
to alternative fuel- oil is still way too cheap.

-----Original Message-----
From: Gnarlodious [mailto:gnarlodious@EARTHLINK.NET] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 3:50 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Diesel Fuel vs. Gasoline

Entity Aaron Pearson spoke thus:

> of course profit drives the oil industry, it drives every industry in 
> a capitalist economy.  there's no reason a company should charge any 
> less for its product than the maximum consumers are willing to spend.

But what we are seeing now is the result of unrestrained consolidation,
which at one time would have been prohibited under the Sherman Antitrust
Act.

Add this monopoly to the intentional sabotage of alternative fuel
programs and it looks like we didn't learn the lesson of 1973. Those who
are too young to remember can read or listen to Jimmy Carter's speech:
http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimmycartercrisisofconfidence.htm

Of course, Ronald Reagan's (elected on Big Oil cash I might add) first
official act as President was to remove the solar panels Jimmy Carter
had put on top of the White House.

I have heard those Libertarian (AKA Corporatist) talk radio wingnuts
blame this on government overregulation, but it just ignores history.
Their statements simply underscore their ultimate agenda of eliminating
Government in all forms and handing our economy over to Corporations.

The bottom line IMHO? It's virtually impossible to pricefix when the raw
material is coming from corn and soybean farmers, windmill and solar
farms and cottage industry refiners.

-- Gnarlie