Record gas prices for us = record profits for the oil industry

It was announced yesterday that Shell's profits were up 25% for the first quarter this year, hitting a record $9 billion.

From the AP article:

Europe's largest oil company said Tuesday its average selling price of crude oil leaped by 66 percent to over $90 per barrel from the first quarter a year ago.

That sent net profit soaring to a record $9.08 billion. Sales were up 55 percent to $114 billion.

Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer said in a statement the strong numbers were due to a "good operating performance, combined with increased oil and gas prices."

Earnings from oil production rose 52 percent to $5.14 billion.

Analysts say the performance was impressive.

For how much longer are the oil companies going to be able to stick it to us with high gas prices, yet at the same time bringing in record profits? If the only reason why gas prices are high is because of prices that the oil companies can't control, then why do they have record profits? People are cutting their gas consumption, yet their profits go up by 25%???

It doesn't take a genius to see we're being robbed at the pump.

Just before I moved to Oregon from Texas, I was paying under $1 per gallon of gas. I moved here in the summer of '00. I regularly filled up the 10 gallon tank on my Saturn for less than $10. I remembering getting mad during the few times a year when it would maybe hit $1.10 or $1.15, as that meant I had to keep more than just a $10 in the "gas stash" in my car. Now I go to the station and put $10 into my car, and I' can't even get 3 gallons.

People are always asking me to drive into Portland for meetings (I live on the eastern edge of Gresham), but it's hard to justify the gas expense anymore. And the bus is often not an option, since Gresham has only limited coverage, plus I often times only have less than an hour between the event in Portland and picking up or dropping off my husband at work, getting my little one from kindergarten, etc. So I have drastically cut back my trips to Portland, as it takes almost an entire day's take home wages for my husband to fill the tank once.

If we don't do something soon, I don't know what is going to happen. The price of gas and many food items are already beginning to be out of reach for many poor people. What are people going to do when they can no longer afford the gas to get to work? Public transportation may seem like the common sense answer for people in areas of Portland that are well covered by mass transit. But what about the more than a million people in this state that don't have that as an option? What about the school districts that are seeing their budgets burst under the strain of fueling their buses?

When will enough be enough?

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