MoveOn wants more enforceable gas gouging bill
There's certainly very little risk to a politician to take on oil companies these days, as the recent bit of anti-price gouging legislation on Capital Hill has shown (see links below). At the end of May, the U.S. congress voted to stop customers getting fleeced at the pump, or so they said. The bill itself is pretty toothless and now MoveOn is going to the mat to support a toothier version.
From MoveOn's email: "Big Oil and their friends in Congress were hoping no one would notice. We did. And we have to show them that this kind of bait-and-switch isn't acceptable. There are more votes coming, and Congress needs to feel the heat from voters, so they stand up to the oil lobby. We've created a hard-hitting ad to run in the congressional paper, designed to do just that.'
The ad isn't as hard-hitting at they suggest, as you can see by clicking on the image above and reading it. But who can be for screwing customers at the pump? We can argue about the value of high gas prices to both further investment in alternatives and in making people reconsider driving everywhere, but gouging? No, thanks.
My favorite part of the way MoveOn is asking for money in this campaign is the way they've set up the donation table. You can give them $3.29 (the average price of a gallon of gas when the campaign started), $19.74 (tank of gas for a Prius), $39.48 (tank of gas for a Honda) or $118.44 (tank of gas for a Hummer). 'Course, if you're paying too much for gas, do you have any left over for politics?
Related:
[Source: MoveOn]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Derek 7:50PM (6/17/2007)
It'll never get through, at least not to the point of anything happening to oil companies. Simply because I doubt anyone will ever be able to come up with evidence of price gouging. Gas demand is tremendous worldwide and we still have pretty cheap gas compared to other countries. To top it off, expenses for the oil companies are at record levels to match their record profits. Simply put, it is costing more and more money to bring us our gasoline. To prove price gouging I think the *profit margin* of the oil companies would have to be at a record level and I doubt it is.
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frank78 6:36PM (6/18/2007)
MoveOn is being irresponsible here. Is it really that hard to understand that constant record setting demand from consumers means record setting profits?? Besides, what's wrong with profit??? The profit margin on gasoline is not very high. They just sell billions of gallons every day worldwide.
Govt makes more off of gasoline than the oil companies do. Especially the states.
There is no price 'gouging' going on. We are probably in the beginning stages of Peak Oil. New discoveries have been small. Huge oil fields that have been around for decades are starting decline very noticeably. All the while, demand from the booming economies of China and India keep pushing demand to record levels.
This has been investigated by the FTC numerous times and no price gouging has ever been found.
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FinanceBuzz 6:50PM (6/18/2007)
I wish the left would stop trying to interfere with the free market and let it operate. I know that gas prices are high and I would rather not pay them myself. But there are sociopolitical and economic factors that are causing this, NOT some conspiratorial price gouging. This is just another example of the left attacking business and pandering for votes (along with help from some Republicans as well) by catering to the economic ignorance of the American people.
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