[thecavemaster]

First, Exxon doesn't set oil prices or gasoline prices. So how is it their fault. Second, Exxon paid more in taxes than everyone on this site will earn in their combined lifetimes. I don't like high gasoline prices, but how is it Exxon's fault??? Exxon pays for oil used to make gasoline. The market sets the oil prices. Higher oil is driving the price of gasoline and the demand is only going to go up as China and India get in on the demand side. Also, gasoline would be a whole lot cheaper if they didn't have a hefty government tax built into the price we pay!!

I'm not defending oil companies entirely, but there is a lot more going on that the simple statement that we are paying a lot and the oil companies are getting rich and price gouging us.

Correct enough, it is no simple formula. I would think a company earning excess billions would pay more taxes than all of the Bluegrass Rivals participants combined...this is stating the obvious. If you are suggesting that there is no collusion in the worldwide petroleum trade, that would be an interesting, though staggeringly naive, assertion. In my opinion, the points you make about China and India are valid, while gasoline taxes, it would seem to me, coincide with the high costs of maintaining roads and all the heavily travelled interstate by-ways.