People think they are entitled to it. This is the price range of gasoline in the rest of the world. The public should also recognize that the only oil price it ever hears about is the futures market price, which is significantly more than the oilman receives for his oil. It is also important to remember that a big percentage of the price of our gasoline is taxes. The public should also know that the domestic oil industry is not big oil.
Big oil is overseas.
This effectively took the profits away from the domestic oil industry, precluding it from accumulating the working capital necessary to insure this country from suffering the effects of drastic energy shortages and committing it to almost complete dependence on foreign countries for our oil. In 1998 and 1999 crude oil prices hit their lowest point in decades. Hundred of thousands of small oil wells had to be abandoned, and the government did not give back any of the windfall profits tax or provide any other help to the domestic oil industry. This resulted in the permanent loss of several hundred thousand barrels of oil per day to this nation's economy, which, of course, caused a further dramatic increase in our oil imports. Unfortunately, this is the nature of the leadership in the United States.