Did Someone Say Price Gouging? (Editorial)

Fact: Gas prices just before Memorial Day reached a record high.
Fact: Oil company profits are at record levels.
Fact: Consumers, though fussing mightily, continue to run down the highways in record numbers while, presumably, cutting back on other expenses.
Of course, we also must assume some of the responsibility, with so many of us continuing to make that long commute all alone in a big SUV.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, speaking recently in northwest Arkansas, said he saw no evidence of gouging by the oil companies.
Many Arkansans would tell him to open his eyes.
In reality, despite all the campaign rhetoric, there’s very little he could do even though the state has a price-gouging law.
Ever since Hurricane Katrina hit, when there was a legitimate excuse for refineries closing down and the oil companies quickly realized that Americans were willing to pay big bucks to keep their vehicles moving, it appears the oil companies now know they can get away with charging high prices by simply offering up various glitches to shut down refineries.
Since there’ve been no new refineries built in the past 25 years, the oil companies can pretty much call the shots on pricing.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation to outlaw price gouging.
Whether the Senate will follow suit is questionable.
If it does, look for President Bush to veto it.
Things were much simpler when we could blame OPEC for high gasoline prices.
But, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, “OPEC members disclosed privately that they are irked that U.S. refining margins — the profits made by refiners in turning crude into gasoline and other products — have rocketed in recent months.”
U.S. refiners lately have made a pretax profit of roughly $30 for each barrel of oil they use to produce gasoline. That’s more than three times the margin in Singapore, a major Asian refining center, the Journal article said.
Just as you always suspected, Big Oil has us over a barrel.