UNited Airlines asks customers to push for legislation on oil

[Froward69]

I just read this. I see it as a positive step towards taking our country back...
Link to the whole article.

http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=95519&catid=222#comments

rec for exposure this needs to be heard...

[rpannier]

1. Customers ask United

to find their missing luggage
Bring back service
Provide a pleasant travel experience

[Jensen]

7. As more Airlines sink the prices will go higher and the service what little there is today

will be non existent!!! Most of the airlines employees have taken 3-4 pay cuts already!They are force to work with less people and accomplish more and all of it is timed to extreme micro management.
I guess you could called them "Bitter Elitist Airline Worker's".

[XOKCowboy]

2. Here is the complete text of the email I got from UA today...

Last week, crude oil hit an all-time high of $146, and the skyrocketing cost of fuel is impacting our customers, our employees, the communities we serve, and the economy as a whole. United, and the majority of other major U.S.
airlines, are asking our most loyal customers to join us in pushing for legislation to add more transparency and disclosure in the oil markets. Please see the attached open letter from the leaders of the U.S. airline industry.

------------------------------------------------------------
An Open letter to All Airline Customers:
------------------------------------------------------------
Our country is facing a possible sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, but by pulling together, we can all do something to help now.

For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain.
This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to our customers. Since high oil prices are partly a response to normal market forces, the nation needs to focus on increased energy supplies and conservation. However, there is another side to this story because normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation.

Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs.

Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper.

The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem.

We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting StopOilSpeculationNow.com.
http://www.unitedoffers.com/600-1sape/101395/235993/c50dd523fcca9f7940af4c5402bf533d

Robert Fornaro
Chairman, President and CEO
AirTran Airways

Bill Ayer
Chairman, President and CEO
Alaska Airlines, Inc.

Gerard J. Arpey
Chairman, President and CEO
American Airlines, Inc.

Lawrence W. Kellner
Chairman and CEO
Continental Airlines, Inc.

Richard Anderson
CEO
Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Mark B. Dunkerley
President and CEO
Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.

Dave Barger
CEO
JetBlue Airways Corporation

Timothy E. Hoeksema
Chairman, President and CEO
Midwest Airlines

Douglas M. Steenland
President and CEO
Northwest Airlines, Inc.

Gary Kelly
Chairman and CEO
Southwest Airlines Co.

Glenn F. Tilton
Chairman, President and CEO
United Airlines, Inc.

Douglas Parker
Chairman and CEO
US Airways Group, Inc.

[rpannier]

12. THere was also a time when Congress regulated the airline industry

Another regulation that has gone unchecked over the past 20 years.

Are they supportive of that??? Because I am.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. The website StopOilSpeculationNow.com has some fascinating information.

The most fascinating, I think, is the list of bills introduced in Congress whose purpose is to attempting to regulate oil speculation and close the Enron loophole (brought to us in 2000 by Phil Gramm), and who is sponsoring them. They are almost entirely the work of Democrats, with only a small number of Republicans signing on. The single bill in the House that was sponsored by Republicans is merely a bill to establish a process for "studying" the effects of oil speculation, which means they'd pretend to study it for awhile and then conclude it's all fine, move along, nothing to see here, and certainly nothing to regulate.

http://capwiz.com/sosnow/issues/bills/

[Raineyb]

3. If Congress don't listen to the airline industry and their lobbyists

What makes them think that Congress will listen to our non-connected asses?

Regards

[Froward69]

4. I used to think I could not make a diffrence

then I tried. my total is about 250 converts from rethuglican to DEM. you could try too.

[Raineyb]

9. I think you're missing my point

The airline industry have been hiring lobbyists for years to get favors from congress and now that they can't afford the lobbyists (or their lobbying efforts aren't going anywhere) they suddenly remember the American public. It's too bad that the airline industry didn't think about the flying public when they were busy screwing said public over.

I'm amused by the plea for help from an industry which generally ignores the people to whom they are pleading. I find irony of their logic funny.

Perhaps I should have used a sarcasm tag.

Regards

[gateley]

5. K&R --

And I've heard it's the speculation that's doing it.

I commend the airline industry for going to their customers and laying it out. I understand it's in their best interests, too, but many industries wouldn't have sought a partnership with their customers.

[XOKCowboy]

6. There's a reason Phil Gram calls us whiners..

His wife wrote the Enron loophole which helped spawn the current speculation frenzy. He doesn't want any speculation reform. It's not the Republican thing to do. The RW thing to do is blame us for not willingly ponying up $4+ for a gallon of gas.

[Froward69]

8. Well I am not going to "whine"

I am angered further. I point out to republicans that the belief in Multinational corporations, is traitorous. as they have NO American patriotism. NO compunction for the stability of the US economy. Phil Graham, Big Oil and speculators are quickly becoming flat out traitors in my book.

[gateley]

10. I was listening to someone who was explaining the speculators.

It doesn't matter whether what they're speculating on goes up or down, just that they get in and out at the right time to make their money. They don't care about the effect it has on us or our economy. :grr:

[exothermic]

11. Oil trading isn't any different in principle from coffee or copper, it's "worth" whatever

someone's willing to pay for it...which bears no resemblance to actual value. Go to a Sotheby's auction some time and watch a crappy old painting with virtually no intrinsic value get sold for 3 million bucks. What about nonindustrial diamonds?...they're useless but very much in "demand" by those who know they aren't the only idiots in the world
and have a flair for gambling.