As NPR is reporting and as you can no doubt can see at the pumps that SURPRISE, as Crude Oil hovers below $40 a barrel, we are paying MORE for gasoline – about the price when Crude Oil was around $70 a barrel … of course, the refiners have a lot of excuses, blah, blah, blah and GASOLINE supplies are at all time highs as demand is still weak – so what is really going on?
Refiners have it both ways, when crude oil prices go up, they charge more for gasoline to us but they can also manipulate the market as they see fit. They can shut down a plant for maintanance and jack up the price of gasoline citing “temporary” shortage … so basically we have to create a financial disincentive for them to shut down plants.
They also like to cite shortages when 2,000 miles away a refinery is closed – as if they really deliver Texas gasoline to Seattle.
Just as we have a income tax tiered basis, there should be increase in taxes to them based on the price of crude and the amount of gasoline the plant is producing. If they randomly decide to shut down a plant, they don’t have an incentive just to do it for a longer period of time as they do now – make more money and deduct the “cost” of doing maintenance … instead, they will be taxed at a higher rate until they bring the plant back online and of course, be taxed at an inappropiate gap between crude prices and retail gasoline prices.
Or maybe they should just be audited by a real blue collar advocate and tehn fired for collusion…or taken out back and beaten with a rock!!