Make Oil a Public Utility

Make Oil a Public Utility
by Ed Ludwig


The furious moans and groans about gasoline and heating oil prices have been met with a public-be-damned attitude from the oil industry — and nothing is being done to rectify the problem. Prices continue to sky-rocket.

Why not designate oil companies as public utilities?

A public utility has been defined as “a business that provides an everyday necessity to the public at large” — such as water, electricity, natural gas, telephone service, transportation, cable TV and other essentials.

Because of the need for and dependence on these commodities and products, the business of supplying them is readily subject to abuse. Without regulation, price gouging can become rampant in a time of great demand and economic turmoil, such as this.

A public utility regulated by the state or federal government, or the two working together, is entitled to charge reasonable rates for its products and services. It also is entitled to earn a reasonable profit. But that’s far less than what Big Oil is making. Public utilities are corporations that distribute dividends to their shareholders amounting to perhaps 5 percent a year of the stock’s value.

Oil energy fits squarely into the criteria for a public utility. How can it be distinguished from electricity and natural gas? It can’t be. But right now, it’s a political “untouchable.”

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/24/7863/

in love with capitalism and the pipe dream of becoming wealthy like the Rockefellers.

about winning the lottery and do what it takes to survive.

and given the fact that the market already operates under oligopoly conditions -that ends up a de facto public utility.

there is no gov't regulation of anything anymore. It is all-=out greed crisis capitalism, o emprire capitalism or whatever you want to call it. the gov't literally works for the coroporations.

but it is a great idea.

we paid our electricity bill to a PUD Public Utility District.

THAT'S UNAMERICAN!!11
THAT'S COMMUNISM!!!!11

:sarcasm:


Time to nationalize it.

Let's see if we can make the Queen a little nervous - she's stockholder in BP/Shell...

It is obvious that the internet will become as important to my generation (Gen Y) and subsequent generations as cable tv and traditional news are to previous generations. I believe we have seen but the tip of the iceberg in the internet revolution; we had our first dot-com bubble, but now investment in tech fields is much more diversified and viable. We must ensure that the internet remains free from censorship, filtering, viruses, and hackers. The US has a vested interest in maintaining a free and open internet, because it is the internet that provides the best chance of eradicating totalitarian governments, especially in the long run. The course of history has shown that the increase of information will, in the long run, increase the freedoms of the people. It will become increasingly difficult for extremist and totalitarian groups to gain traction in a world where fact checking is a common occurrance and alternate views are widely available. Making the internet a public utility will have many great results. 1. It will make access as affordable, reliable, and easy to use as electricity. 2. It will reduce barriers of entry for people in nearly every industry. Having access to vast amounts of knowlesge will allow children to explore career paths in depth and will help prospective workers identify the best job suited to their skills. 3. It will make government more efficient, and elected leaders more accountable. There are many more reasons, but this is probably enough.