Senator (Schumer) calls for gasoline price-fix probe (Dorgan on Exxon CEO)

[RamboLiberal]

http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/18/news/economy/gas_price_investigation/index.htm?cnn=yes

As American drivers shell out more and more money at the pump with each passing day, some are asking whether big oil companies are scheming to withhold supplies in order to boost prices.

New York Senator Charles Schumer, speaking in front of a Hess station in Manhattan, called Tuesday for a federal investigation to see if oil companies and refiners are deliberately withholding gasoline production, taking advantage of the normal switch from winter gas to summer gas in an attempt to bid up prices.

"The bottom line is they are producing at 85 percent capacity when they should be producing over 90 percent," said Schumer. "Are they scaling back production? Only by subpoenaing the companies and looking in their books will we get that answer."

Schumer's call comes as oil prices broke record highs and gasoline prices trailed close behind.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Democratic_senator_wants_SEC_investigation_of_0418.html

Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond's $400 million retirement package is a "shameful display of greed" and said oil companies have "hooked their hose up to the pocketbooks of American citizens and are sucking money from ordinary Americans into the treasury of the giant oil companies," RAW STORY has learned.

In a statement, Dorgan said he wants the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the deal, and wants ExxonMobil called before Congress "to explain their actions."

Dorgan is a member of both the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee and the Energy Committee.

“These major oil companies have hooked their hose up to the pocketbooks of American citizens and are sucking money from ordinary Americans into the treasury of the giant oil companies," he said in a statement. "The result is that Exxon reported the highest profit in the history of corporate America last year. Today we read that while farmers struggle to pay the fuel bills and drivers are paying painful prices to fill their gas tanks the oil companies are rolling in cash and their retired executives are getting obscene retirement benefits.”

[Newsjock]

1. And the Dow industrials rise 195 points today

More good news for the have-mores!

[sam sarrha]

2. did the RepugNuts turn off his mike and the lights..??

[aquart]

3. It's more than greed. It's theft.

It's stealing profits from both shareholders and employees. Is the job of a chief executive to create profit for himself?

[YDogg]

4. And dick "dick" cheney still won't release energy task force records.

What a dick. It's all a fucking setup, as it has been since these assholes walked into the white house.