Oil companies are keeping gas prices inflated to help Republicans get elected

[BumRushDaShow]

88. The original tweet in the OP, which has generated much debate in this thread, is asserting -

Oil companies are keeping gas prices inflated to help Republicans get elected in exchange for maintaining ongoing tax breaks.

And what is being described in this thread conflates what are "gasoline" prices vs "oil prices", which is mixing two different price points. That is going to lead to skewed results because what the "consumer" deals with is what their local retailer is selling the gasoline for, not what the oil companies are charging.

The revenues, including that "$90 billion" that you are citing is the gross revenue for one quarter, NOT yearly. The quarters are going to vary through the year but their total revenue for the year of 2021 was $286 billion and that was double the revenue from 2020 when they were caught having to PAY people to store the excess oil.

ExxonMobil's profits and revenue soar on high oil prices

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business

Updated 9:26 AM ET, Tue February 1, 2022

(snip)

Prices for oil, natural gas and petrochemicals all soared in 2021, allowing ExxonMobil to report revenue of $285.6 billion, up from $181.5 billion in 2020. Revenue in the fourth quarter of $85 billion was up 83% from a year earlier and up 15% from the third quarter of 2021.

(snip)

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/01/business/exxonmobil-earnings/index.html

So when you cherry-pick "$4.5 billion", keep in mind that in all of 2021 (their "recovery" year), they had $23 billion in yearly "net revenue", which averages what? Almost $6 billion per quarter. And they even indicated this for 2021 -

Generates $48 billion of cash flow from operating activities, the highest level since 2012, more than covering capital investments, debt reduction, and dividend

Right now, it's guaranteed (and this has happened way back in the past) if one gas station owner (franchise or indie) decides to sell their gas at 99 cents/gal, and they experience long lines of people buying it for that price, it will have no impact whatsoever on the oil company profits or losses because the oil contracts were determined on the futures markets some time ago.

And that goes back to the "tax holiday", which is causing all sorts of heartburn for some reason and the Biden Administration posted a Fact Sheet this morning about it - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/06/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-calls-for-a-three-month-federal-gas-tax-holiday/

FACT SHEET: President Biden Calls for a Three-Month Federal Gas Tax Holiday

June 22, 2022 • Statements and Releases

The price of gas is up dramatically around the world, and by almost $2 per gallon in America, since Putin began amassing troops on the border of Ukraine. President Biden understands that high gas prices pose a significant challenge for working families. That’s why he has taken action in recent months to boost the supply of oil and gas, including an historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and encouraging oil companies and refiners to boost capacity and output to get more supply on the market.

Today, he is calling on Congress and states to take additional legislative action to provide direct relief to American consumers who have been hit with Putin’s Price Hike. Specifically, he is calling on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for three months, through September, without taking any money away from the Highway Trust Fund. And he is calling on states to take similar action to provide some direct relief, whether suspending their own gas taxes or helping consumers in other ways.

Federal Gas Tax Holiday

Right now, the federal government charges an 18 cent tax per gallon of gasoline and a 24 cent tax per gallon of diesel. Those taxes fund critical highways and public transportation, through the Highway Trust Fund. But in this unique moment, with gas prices near $5 a gallon on average across the country, President Biden is calling on Congress to suspend the gas tax for three months – until the end of September – to give Americans a little extra breathing room as they deal with the effects of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The President is also calling on Congress to make sure that a gas tax holiday has no negative effect on the Highway Trust Fund. With our deficit already down by a historic $1.6 trillion this year, the President believes that we can afford to suspend the gas tax to help consumers while using other revenues to make the Highway Trust Fund whole for the roughly $10 billion cost. This is consistent with legislation proposed in the Senate and the House to advance a responsible gas tax holiday.

President Biden understands that a gas tax holiday alone will not, on its own, relieve the run up in costs that we’ve seen. But the President believes that at this unique moment when the war in Ukraine is imposing costs on American families, Congress should do what it can to provide working families breathing room.

State and Local Action

In addition to federal gas tax relief, the President is calling on state and local governments to provide additional consumer relief. Already, some states and local governments have acted: for example, in Connecticut and New York, governors temporarily suspended their gas taxes, and in Illinois and Colorado, governors delayed planned tax and fee increases. And, around the country, in states like Michigan and Minnesota, states and local leaders are considering a number of forms of consumer relief – from temporary suspensions and pauses on state sales tax on gas to consumer rebates and relief payments. The President believes more states and local governments should do so.

Ongoing Actions to Blunt the Impact of the Putin Price Hike

Today’s announcements follow a series of actions the President has taken to lower gas prices for American families.

The President announced the release of a record 1 million barrels per day from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which just last week a leading oil market analyst confirmed has been critical to keeping prices from rising even more.

He rallied international partners to join us, releasing a combined 240 million barrels of oil on the market.

He expanded access to biofuels like E15—gasoline that uses a 15 percent ethanol blend—to increase supply and lower prices at thousands of gas stations across the country.

He and his Administration are engaging with oil and refining companies to ask them to work with the Administration to bring forward concrete solutions that increase refinery capacity and output. Secretary Granholm is meeting with these CEOs this week.

Already, the United States produced more oil under the first year of this Administration than it did under the first two years of the prior Administration, and is on track to set new records next year. At the same time, the President understands that our efforts to increase energy production in the near-term must be coupled with medium- and long-term efforts to transition our economy away from fossil fuels produced by autocrats and to clean energy.

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The above attempt is to cajole the retailer, who has to pay those excise taxes to the states/federal government (and that is what is passed onto the consumer) to drop the "price at the pump", with the assumption that they will still need some "profit" themselves to operate but that shouldn't have to be from pocketing the taxes that they wouldn't have to pay, at least for that short amount of time.