JohnH wrote:
On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 13:41:09 GMT, Ignatius Thistlewhite
wrote:

You wrote:

"While the oil companies deny any manipulation, public confidence was
eroded at the recent report that exiting Exxon Mobil executive Lee
Raymond was getting a 400 million dollar retirement package."

If you do not like the fact that ExxonMobil used part of its 9 cents per
gallon profit to compensate a retiring executive, patronize another
supplier of the company's products.

If you do not like the fact that government taxes account for 40 cents per
gallon, well, there's nothing you can do about that.

From where comes the 9 cents a gallon figure and the 49 cents a gallon
figure?
--
'Til next time,

John H

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John,

The 40 cents a gallon tax figure is easy to find. Just google it. The
federal tax per gallon is $0.184, while the state taxes range from
$0.10 - $0.33 per gal, with an average of $0.22/gallon of gas. That
would make the total average tax in the US per gallon of gas
approximately $0.40.

The $0.09/gallon profit figure is a little more difficult to track
down. Doing a google, I found ranges from $0.09 to 0.99.

The one reasonably reliable source for the $0.09/gallon profit was from
the Heartland Institute's Environment and Climate News.

I did find ranges stating things like: Exxon made $0.49 or $0.99 in
profit for every gallon of gasonline the produce. When you take figures
like the $0.99 profit per gallon produces, what they appear to have
done there is take Exxon's gross profits and divide it by Exxon's
gasoline producing in gallons.

These gross profits consist not only of gasoline profits, but of
profits generated by other petroleum and chemical derivatives and
products. Additionally, gross profits are typically calculated as total
sales by cost of production and supply. These profits are typically
pre-tax profits and do not consider other overhead expenses such as
employee benefits, pensions, administrative costs, delivery and
distribution costs...

Now I'm not saying Exxon hasn't made a lot of money. Of course it has,
but:

1) The facts are being distorted by those with an anti-business agenda
2) People not liking the price of gas are buying into the hype eagerly
3) Businesses are in business to make a profit. (Now or course all you
socialist types out there won't like that fact).

Actually, we should consider ourselves lucky. In the UK, the tax on a
gallon of gasoline is in excess of $3.00/gallon (that's just the tax).

Till