News-Record.com

Donna, how about first we get NC to drop it's 40+ cents per gallon fuel tax from the pumps. That would drop it down to $1.85/gallon.

I'm no fan of oil companies, but I crunched a few numbers quickly. The $7.640 billion in after tax profit in 2005 is a net profit margin of 8.63% on sales of $88.568 billion. The $5.790 billion of after tax profit in 2004 is a net profit margin of 8.19% on sales of $70.693 billion. The difference is 0.4% from 2nd quarter of 2004 to 2nd quarter of 2005. The pre-tax profit is only 1% more in 2005 than 2004. The price of gas increases the top line revenue number in terms of total dollars as well as the bottom line profit. But when you look at percentages, the change is hardly something that makes me want to grab a lantern and pitchfork and storm Exxon's corporate office.

I love it, anytime a corporation makes a profit they are branded as evil and the government needs to take them down. JDR this is right up your alley.

I'm not an economist, but I do understand the concept of suppy & demand. Supply of oil is less, yet demand is greater (worldwide). Guess what happens?

Maybe if the environmental groups would allow more domestic exploration and construction of refineries, supply would increase and price would go down. The capital investment would also narrow the companie's profit margins, which would please Mr. Black!

You're right Hugh, no one ever complains about gas taxes, just the oil companies. You think our "friends" in Raleigh would lower the tax to help us out no? Here is an explanation of NC gas taxes taken from www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp As gas prices rise the tax automatically rises, ain't that clever? Did anyone know you pay a 2.5 cent inspection tax on each gallon? I guess that's for them to put those little Dept. of Agriculture "approved" stickers on the pumps?

CPG means cents per gallon:

North Carolina 26.6 Plus 0.25-cpg inspection tax. Rate increased 2 cpg from 24.6 cents per gallon to 26.6 cents per gallon 1/1/05. It consists of a 17.5 cpg flat rate plus a variable rate of 9.1 cpg wholesale component based on 7% average wholesale price component based on prices from 4/1/04 to 9/30/04 (the average price for that period was 130.34 cents per gallon).

Ooops, got my decimal point in the wrong place on the inspection tax.

I agree with Donald Black. $7.64 billion profit for a quarter is obscene and it does not matter if it is 1% or 50% margin, it is still money out of OUR pockets into their coffers. Of course, this profit makes a great dividend to shareholders...and who recently loosened the dividend tax laws to "Benefit our Economy?" This is no joke and commodity regulators should investigate how and why the market price of oil has been pushed so high!

Come on Dan, you know Bush and his oil buddies are behind these high prices. As soon as we elect Hillary in '08 we will see $0.35 per gallon again.

Why is no one complaining about retailers such as Walmart who buy an item for cents and charge customers dollars. An example is t-shirts-average cost wholesale: 40 cents each/dozen---average retail: $2.99 each and up. So why shouldn't oil companies make a profit. After all what is the point of being in business to begin with? Folks park your SUVs and drive a hybrid, moped, or horse.

Hugh, you made a mistake. North Carolina's tax on gas is not 40 cents per gallon.

I will say this slightly tongue in cheek, but only so slightly. Maybe the gas companies should raise the prices up to what is paid here in europe. I use diesel, the cheapest at the pumps, and I still pay out nearly ´5.50 a gallon. Super unleaded will run you nearly 7.50 to 8.00 dollars at some places. I saw a man fill up is 12 to 15 gallon tank and it costed him nearly 100 bucks.

But what I also know is the germans drive cars that are extremely fuel efficient and by most standards rank high in safety. The kind of car cheney doesnt want to make the car industry make and the kind of car the car industry and insurance companies say cant be done.

But I want blame Cheney because he has a point about the market. If americans keep choosing to drive their big gas eating trucks,cars and suv's then why should anyone change anything including the "high" prices. If you are looking for the problem look first in the mirror.

I've been looking to buy a car. I've got 2 kids. One is in a child seat.

My options for fuel efficient cars (that I can afford) do not include hybrids. Basically, the only option I see are a Toyota Corolla, some sort of Hyundai, or perhaps a 4 cylinder Saturn.

In those cars I must put one kid on one side of the rear seat and the other on the other side.

What happens when a Ford Excursion or Escalade (or even an Explorer for that matter) runs a redlight and hits my lightweight fuel efficient car?

The answer is fairly simple. One of my kids dies.

It's easy to sit back and say everyone should be smart enough to pick a fuel efficient car. It's another thing when you are forced to choose between paying at the pump and paying with your children's lives.

I drive an f-150 with a Triton v-8. I get about 18 miles to the gallon. My wife has a much smaller v-6 and gets 19.9 miles to the gallon. I have looked in the mirror and thought several times about getting a smaller 4 cylander car, so that I don't spend $70.00 per week in gas. The problem is, 4 cylander cars don't have the room that a 5 person family needs for travelling.

Hayes said raise gas prices to match what they pay in Europe...don't they also have managed health care in Europe? Lets do some math. For family coverage insurance where I work (medical, dental, life) I pay $375.00 per month. I currently spend $70.00 per week in gas. Now lets assume that gas costs $5.50 per gallon. This will raise my weekly gas rate to just under $150.00. Looking at this monthly, if gas was $5.50 per gallon, and the government would have managed health care then I would spend less. About $650.00 per month v's the estimated $675.00 that I am paying now. This is a fair trade off to me.

But paying $5.50 per gallon and still having to pay for my healthcare separate...forget it!

Again, I am a part of the problem because I do drive a large vehicle...perhaps the problem lies in that I have 3 kids. If I had stopped at 1, as is the law in China, then the 4 cylander car would fit my lifestyle just fine.

Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's used to say, "profit is not a dirty word". But then again, you never saw him charge $10.00 for a single with cheese either.

No matter how you look at it, gas is the same as it was in 1995 when it was a mere $.99 per gallon. Nothing has changed. I challenge anyone to show me another product that has increased in price more than 100% in the same period of time that gas has.

I definitely don't know the answers. I wish I did. But I don't believe in the allegations that there is a 'Bush conspiracy' or anything else like that. I think OPEC has finally realized that we will pay their gouging price...whatever it is!

Truth
My point is to many times I have heard how that in order to get better fuel efficiency you must give up safety. But I know for a fact you can have both you just have to demand the auto industry to build them and to stop with the BS.

You shouldnt have to make that choice between one or the other. I dont; I have both.

Sure, let us get the government to control the price of gas. After all they control the price of sugar and milk.

We pay about 4 times more per pound for sugar than it is worth and about 2 times more per gallon for milk.

Oh yes, remember when they regulated telephone costs. That was when a 1 min call from Greensboro to High Point cost $1.50 instead of $0.10. Or a 3 min call to NY cost $6.00 plus instead of $0.75.

So great - lets let the government handle the cost of gas, they could use it as another social program to control our bad behavior. Wonderful idea.

gaytony, One item that would answer your question would be the cost of steel.

gaytony
I read your post after sending my other.

I knew someone would make that arguement. But factor two things in. My 5.50 is based on diesel again the cheapest here.If your cars take gas then you need to refactor at a price of 650 to 800 a gallon based on if you use regular or super unleaded. Also I must pay my life insurance seperate and if some new bills get passed I will be having to carry more of the burden with doctor and medical bills. Not as much in america but still more and guess what the gas prices want be effected in the least by these changes.

Roch, evidently Hugh added in the Federal tax also to get his total tax which was in 02 40.8 total with 22.1 base 0.3 other being NC share the remainder being fed tax. Of course these figures are 2002 and NC tax did go up this year.
Given all that however there were , in 2002 10 states with high state tax and 19 states with higher overall tax than NC.
For me, I just am thankful that SC is only a few miles away for me where the tax total is 35.2cents, with total state tax being 16.8 cent and much better highways to boot.

Hayes, just like the Europeans would fight to the death not to give up 6-8 weeks annual vacation and a cradle to grave nanny state, Americans would fight to the death to give up their big cars, SUVs and trucks.

When I lived with my French family with four kids, we all had to cram into the Peugeot to go somewhere. If we went for a weekend trip, they would take both cars, as 7 people and baggage would not fit into their small car!! Not too fuel efficient an idea, but no other way.

To the credit of the French & rest of Europe, public transportation was excellent. I used the bus and trains frequently and did not own a car when I lived there. However, I was a single college student, now having a wife & two kids would make that difficult.

You mentioned the $5.50 gallon, how much of that goes to taxes? I'm sure a good bit.

Ecuman

"But when you look at percentages, the change is hardly something that makes me want to grab a lantern and pitchfork and storm Exxon's corporate office."

So who can afford to fill lanterns these days?

Truth,

"What happens when a Ford Excursion or Escalade (or even an Explorer for that matter) runs a redlight and hits my lightweight fuel efficient car?"

Good chance they'll flip and die too if it makes you feel any better.

Dan
I could only laugh and shake my head at your first comment. It is so sadly true. The germans need some major changes but refuse to accept any basic changes. But in some part their refusal is a good grounds. We are one of the most highly taxed countries in the world. Most of the changes being pushed are mainly one way. That is they will increase what the common german must cover themselves,ie insurance, but will do nothing to lower the tax burden meaning the germans will have less than before to spend. There was last year a big hoopla about how we would get more back in our paychecks,much like Bushes idea. I saw a whopping 10.00 dollar difference in my paycheck. Went out and ordered that new mercedes 600 class the next day.

The tax on the gas I am not sure but would figure at a minimum 50% though probably higher. Remember this the Green Party wants to increase the price to 5.00 euros(6.00dollars) per liter not per gallon. Which comes out to about 21.00 bucks per gallon and that is for the cheap diesel gas.

Hayes, glad you liked my first comment and realized how true it is. I remember first arriving in France, how everyone boasted about the cradle to grave govt. benefits. I remember the vehement protests and constant strikes anytime the govt. proposed changing something that the unions didn't want. I remember all of the ambulance drivers parked in front of the hospital for a one day strike, not a good day to get sick.

Not saying our system is perfect by any means, but one of the last places I would want to start a business is in Europe. In fact I ran into a guy I knew in high school this week, haven't seen him since. He told me he was working in goods importation, mainly in Asia. He said they used to import goods from Europe also, but quit as it was too complicated and not profitable enough.

Gas was about $4.00/gallon when I lived there 20 years ago, so $5.50 is less than what I thought it would be. I knew most of it was due to taxes. $21/gallon would take you guys back to horse riding and isolate the country economically. Who would want to do business there?

I do not know are care what NC gas tax is. I do know that gas is 18 cents cheaper in Va tonight. The only money I spend in NC is at the local golf course.Taxes are just to damn high in NC. Thats why NC is not up to speed in my opinion.
Va has a democrat gov. and they have a surplus. WE have tax hike Mike. Just my opinion.