I feel very trollish starting this post.
Recently Congress had the CEOs of major oil companies to testify why they were making record profits. While it looks like windfall profits to me, it's worth jogging everyone's memory to 1998 (
see article). Exxon and Mobil had not merged yet. They would as oil was not at $65 a barrel but only $13. The price needs to be $20 a barrel to break even for oil companies.
Oil companies are simply responding to the dynamics of a market-driven economy. We remember the pump prices in Sept 2005 better than 1998 becauce it was more painful. The energy industry was hurting in 1998, but the consumer was happy with the pump prices then....
Does this mean I think the free enterprise system should be replaced by a five-year
Gosplan? Absolutely not. I see the problem as priorities, not economics.
The root problem is the American public has not mandated their elected leaders to implement a serious energy policy. CAFE standards are lenient. Gas guzzlers get bigger tax breaks than hybrids. More incentives are needed on alternative fuels.
You can speak of greedy energy companies and automakers. I won't necessarily disagree with their profit motives, but
it starts with the consumer.
If the general public looked beyond next week and next month, they would buy the most fuel-efficient vehicle for their needs. Detoit would appeal to people wanting a practicle vehicle. We would not be hearing Cadilliac Escalade commericials that "tells the competition to get out of the way" and virtually says "it kicks their a$$'.
If the public thinks with their heads, not their glands, things will straighten out.