WWAY TV, A Bit Biased On Gas?

WWAY TV 3 Drivers are fuming about high gas prices April 27, 2006 10:19 PM BRUNSWICK COUNTY-- It seems the rich get richer and drivers get poorer. Exxon-Mobil announced a record first quarter earning of $8.4 billion. That's tough for many people to hear as they pay more than three bucks a gallon for gas. It's not the gray day that had people down. It's the price at the pump. At an Exxon station in Brunswick County, it's $2.99 a gallon for regular unleaded. "This truck here likes gas. Takes about $80 a day to fill it up," driver Mark Benton said. Benton drives his gas-guzzling truck for work each day. He's thought about down-sizing but hasn't done it yet. He and others find it hard to believe that a company can make $8.4 billion over three months and still charge sky-high prices for gasoline. "That's crazy," Benton said. "I mean, I don't know why they can't lower the price some if they're making that big a profit then they ought to be able to lower it." "You'd have to be a dummy not to know somebody's gouging somebody," driver Jaques Lamarshe said. "If I did business that way or anyone else did business that way, I bet you they'd be stopped quickly." Down the road another Exxon station is selling gas for 10 cents more per gallon. Workers say they don't like charging high prices, but that's what their distributor charges them. Nationally lawmakers in Washington are trying to make a difference. They are tossing around ideas like a gas-tax holiday, sending a $100 rebate check to all drivers or rewarding people who ride bikes. But in the immediate future there looks like no relief is on the way for our pain at the pumps. Not all the money from your trip to the pump goes to the big oil companies. In North Carolina about 40-cents on every dollar goes to state and federal taxes. In fact the state has the sixth highest gas tax in the country. Let's see their opening paragraph talks about Exxon-Mobil's record profit but doesn't tell you how much per gallon they make. Do you know how much Exxon-Mobil makes on a gallon of gas? I tell you, it's about 4.5 cents, the average between the big 4 is about 9 cents per gallon. That's right Exxon-Mobil only makes about 5 cent each time you dump a gallon of gas into your tank. Now if you look at the last paragraph of the article it mentions the tax portion of a gallon of gas. The national average of taxes per gallon is about 45 cents. Oh I know the money goes to the roads. Bull, it's suppose to but millions of dollars every year is diverted from highway funds (federal and state) and put to where the government wants it (bridges to nowhere, how fast does ketchup pour etc). Right in NC money is diverted from the Highway Trust Fund every year. $170 million is supposed to be transfered from the HTF to the general fund yearly to replace taxes that where diverted to the HTF. Within a couble of years $80 million more was diverted from the HTF to cover a budget short fall. The following year the legislature took another $125 million on top of the $170 million. Today $252 million is took out of the HTF and put into the GF, yet Easley doesn't want to lower our state's gas tax a few cents because it's for the roads (the last 4 words are said in a low sad voice with you head tilted 45 degrees). It seems to me the opening paragraph should be something like this: BRUNSWICK COUNTY-- It seems the rich get richer and drivers get poorer. Our government gets about $0.40 for every gallon of gas you buy compared to Exxon-Mobil's $0.05. That's tough for many people to hear as they pay more than three bucks a gallon for gas.