Hate oil co's for their HIGH GAS PRICES? You're a moron.

Main point - government is more to blame than oil execs:

Taxes on gas = 20% of the price
(used to build all those roads so we never have traffic...:-/... Also, I believe the government now uses some of this to pay for disastrous policies like subsidies for ethanol, which is worse for the environment than conventional oil, less efficient, and causes food prices in general to skyrocket)

Restrictions on supply = 1-30% of the price
We don't exactly know, but I would safely assume we can have up to 30% more oil by allowing domestic drilling and deregulating the refining industry

Inflation = ?% of the price
Our current dollar only affords $.02 worth of what the 1913 dollar afforded. Our money supply increases by about 6-8% a year, meaning prices rise roughly 6-8% a year without economic growth (greater specialization of trade, technology, efficiency). Since we do have economic growth, it's always less than 6-8%, but that just means we'd see DECREASING prices if we didn't allow the government to create new money at will. Prices have increased 778% since 1950, in general, not just for oil. PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU ARE NOT RECEIVING AN ANNUAL 6-8% RAISE, YOU'RE ACTUALLY RECEIVING A 6-8% PAY CUT EVERY YEAR.

**Also, think about this - at 6% monetary inflation, the amount of money in circulation doubles in 12 years, at 8% in 9 years. If you kept $100 in a safe and it was lost for 30 years, that money would lose 87.5% of its value, being equivalent to $12.50...this is why treasure hunters seek gold, which retains its value, rather than paper money. If they found $1,000,000 in paper money 200 years old, it'd only be worth ~$.95, or .000095% of its original value.**

Profit = 9.5% of the price
This is less than magazines, software, tabacco, and even water utilities. Still too large for you? Don't buy gas.

Let's be realistic. Considering the risk involved in the oil business (wells can go dry before expected, heavy capital investment before seeing a single dollar), profits could be much larger. In any case, there would be no oil business if there were no profit. Let's say 3% profit is the minimum. Then, we could only cheapen gas prices by 6.5% max, whereas we could easily get rid of all gas taxes and get 20% cheaper gas. If we get rid of taxes and allowed domestic production, then we could see 50% cheaper gas. And if we got rid of our inflationary currency, we would see much more stable prices, like we did before 1971, when the dollar could be exchanged for gold at a fixed rate.

http://mises.org/story/2940