Big Oil's Outrages Price Gouging?

It is the life blood of our American economy and way of life, Oil. Demand for this prescious resource is increasing steadily throughout the whole world while the amount of crude locked within the earth remains fixed. So, is Big Oil price-gouging? I dare to say that prices are what they should be according to the laws of supply and demand. You might want to look at the taxes which are embedded in every drop of oil, that's where you might find the price gouging. Federal, state, and local government are making up to 61 cents on every gallon (www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/margins/index.html) of gas while the average profit made by the oil industry on each gallon, even during the recent spike in prices, is along the lines of 10 cents! Shocked? So was I. The oil industry's profit margins are actually close to the average of all other industries in the United States. The largest costs for the oil companies are the actual crude, refining it, and of course taxes. So how did Exxon-Mobile make 30 billion dollars last quarter? Most of the profits come from the sheer volume of gas being consumed. If you make a 9% profit on 330 billion dollars in revenue, well then there's your profit. That's total profits, the percentage from just selling the gas is closer to 5% or 6%. Lets pretend that Exxon-Mobile decided to become a non-profit organization (fat chance) and gas was at $3 a gallon, you would be saving a buck or two with every tank of gas. Won't really affect those Memorial Day weekend plans, will it?