EnergyFactor By ExxonMobil | Pespectives has a new home

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When the price of gasoline increases, so do the misplaced theories that some commentators use to explain the phenomenon. Some, including Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, have charged large integrated oil companies with manipulating the price of gasoline by purposefully taking gasoline and diesel out of the U.S. market. I recently explained why this analysis is wrong, and now along comes independent verification from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Big oil, big taxes

Posted: March 30, 2012 by Ken Cohen

The Senate debate on a bill to increase oil company taxes ended yesterday when supporters failed to get enough votes to continue. But the misinformation campaign rolls on. By now it’s becoming all too familiar, especially since Politico and The New York Times published leaked talking points being used to counter critics who blame the administration’s energy policy for high gasoline prices.


Any doubt we are in the middle of an election season will be erased by casting an eye on Washington, where some in the United States Senate are once again training their sights on the oil and gas industry. The Senate leadership is scheduling a vote in the next few days on a bill its supporters claim will “eliminate unnecessary tax subsidies” for integrated energy companies like ExxonMobil. It bears a loaded title: the “Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act” (S.2204). As Yogi Berra might say, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

With U.S. natural gas production booming, and the price of natural gas right now lower than the price of gasoline or diesel fuel, some are asking: Why don’t more of our cars run on natural gas? Compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles – the most common type of natural gas vehicle – have been around for…


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