Make oil a public utility

Now, why would the elite allow something that makes this much sense to happen when they have manipulated, bribed and conned our government to send our young men and women to die for the sake of privatizing oil that is already nationalized? When we are provoking war in the Middle East and South America over countries that have nationalized their oil industries. They make way too much profit for themselves to allow it to just slip away from them in the name of the public good.

Truth is that capitalism could care less about the public good. It's most vital defining element is greed.

Make oil a public utility

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."