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tv   Stossel  FOX Business  May 25, 2013 1:00am-2:01am EDT

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>> netflix charges about $8 per month for all you can eat. just becase people watch arrested development, netflix is making more money on it. >> i think people will say that there will be more opportunities liken. that will do it. we will see you tomorw. ♪ john: what do you know about gasoline? zero oil companies? >> wait too much. john: i am told at the mall wil help. >> a new hero is rising. saving our future. john: it does inease smiling. >> you can add miles. john: a lot of myths. that is our sh tonight. ♪ >> and now john stossel. [applause]
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john: planning s car trip? warmer weather means driving season. we all have opinions about the price of gas, what might be don about it, but it tur out some much of what we thinkthat we know is not so. and oe reason we get it wrong is that companies and interest groups like to ask. politicians, well, like maybe too harsh a word. they mislead. they pretend that was a few law they can make erything better. president obama's says gas cost too much and he fes ourpain. >> the serious blow to your budget. getting hit with a new tax coming right out of your pocket. john: the president took action. >> we have taken steps to softe the blow b making sure that our cars use less gas. we put in place the toughest to economy standards in history. over the life a new car the average family wl save more than $8,000 at the pum. john: it sounds good. he does not want to save $000.
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but the magic of fuel economy standards is just one more myth that liticians sell us. here to tell us t truth, susan dudley who runs the regulatory studies center in orge washington university and jes taylor who studies energy for the heartland institute. so what is the problem? president obama just said he explained that he saved the $8,0. >> the problem is, we have hybrid cardsand love them. we drive them, commute, take them on vacations. wheels of a pickup tck that we use around the firm. now, for are hybrids we value fuel economy. we like gas mileage. from a truck we value different things. the problem with the government rule is that they are ignoring all those otr president -- precedents.
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the only thing of value is fuel economy. >> 78% favor requing bter fuel efficiency, but the car dealers say that this will make cars cost $3,000 more. >> and the government's own estimate is that the most recen rules the you just mentioned, $60 billion to achieve those. john: these are popular. >> and consumers right now if they want can purchase these automobiles right now. i am wondering why we're doi is of oil and sticking your nos and other people's business. in order to make cars more fuel efficient of the manufacturers are making them smaller, using lighter materials and are less crash worthy. your seeinthousands of people dying on the roads right now that should not be and would no be if we did not have these requirements to ouregulations, restrictions. john: more people die, but we get more mileage. next read, people is in the aut industry its regulation. fights it intensely, but i noticed something weird when th
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fuel standard bill was announced . thenheads of 13 car makers were their shaking the president's hand and smiling. everybody looked so happy. what is that about? >> people team that tiara peopl tend to think that industry doe not want regulation but in thi tree often supports regulation because it gives them competitive advantage. in this case there are a few of the automaker's there were in support of the rule. also, i think the indtry, they face the threat oo different regulations in 50 different states, so this might have been a lesser of two ils. even if it is a $60 billion cost , if everyone had to do it, ey could pass it on to consumers. john: just like with other industries, when you're heavily regulated, if you are a large company already making a profit you can assure those costt. the same time you know the smaller companies,hose who have get ideas and innovate cannot afford these costs.
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>> gives the bi as a advantage. it is a way that they absorb th cost d say it is a necessary evil because we can keep that market share to ourselves. we don't get these invative products, innovative companies thatare be done by regulations. john a few weeks ago i reported on another example of tough regulations. check out this cooler ahibious vehicle. oh, no. i am driving in the water. wait a second. i press a button andhe wheels roll up. now i have a real boat. and the company makes even more useful amphibious vehicles. it's terrific rescue vehicle. places wherehereeare lots of lakes and rivers. this suv-sized one. the company says american regulation makes it very
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difficult to get these things approved in america. one reason is that big automakers are so uncomfortable th the current regulations that they join the government. it has no air bag. but you cannot put air bags d above because every time it's a way of the thingould go off. >> frequent pace planting, but as adults unless the manufacturers of these innovative vehicles are affirmatively hiding something from us, why shouldn't we be able to make the interest jack. >> and of passing beyond the. john: does not take on the oil companies. i am told theyopposed in energy and, the competition. they don't want to follow the green lead. i assume that is true. laurel is not green, would you say this is a myth. >> absolutely. exxon mobile invested
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$600 million an ounce to research for biofuels. they see an opportunity to make money, especially if the government is going to man thei subsidized. they're not opposed to that. john: they are, in effect, the biggest investor of green stuff. >> people don't know that, but the auto companies see a opportunity to have more subsidies, more port thrown their weight. why not get on board. john: next, electric ca. great for the environment i want this totally freethks to a government subsidy. then a subsi is now gone. the electric must be better for the trip because congress still subsidizes the elericvehicle. this is a myth? >> electric is not better because we have to get electricity from somewhere, so if the justification is we a reducing emissions, well, now w just a power plant emissions, bus the batteries.
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if you put them in automobiles as well, they're also a very significant and our mental problem in terms of recycling and what have you. thank you for that segment. i watch it. i got one of those golfcarts myself. may be used -- maybe a little bit of a hypocrite the governme justified by saying we are reducing emissions. it is not like to be driving al over the neighborhood. it is just a toy. john: next, democrats regulate and republicans deregulate. you were a republican regutor. >> i was the overseer of the regulators. john: regulatoryffairs. >> that's ight. and the evidence just does not support that. if you look at the number of regulations that were issued by a george h. w. bush, clinton, and george w. bush, on over their term they issued this sam number. president oba has been
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regulating more. hisecord is about 20 percent more than any of his three previous. plus, the notion that president bush was of the regulator, i would say that is a myth. he issued some of the most far reaching regulations on air quality, food labeling, and -- john: he hired 95,000 new regulator said. did you fight him on this? did you resist? >> the pressure to regulate is intense. and as we've notedefore, even in this tree is pressuring. so when everybody wants, regulation can give you some competitive advantage everyone pushes for it. ere is no one pushing for stepping back to give people more freedom of choice. john: we are on is program. when we talk about gas and oil and whahat they cost, think abo this. over here, this barrel of oil. so let me ask the audience.
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of the oil in this barrel, how much of it becomes gasoline? all of this? most of it? don't answer because you're too smart. you are my audience. ask people in times square. how much of that becomes gasoline? >> all of it. >> i would say about maybe 60-70 % is probably converted into gasoline. john: chief enomist. he should know. so what percent of a barrel becomes gasoline? >> it varies by refinery and crude type. john: can you guess what is?
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>> the computer. john: the volleyball. >> styrofoam cups. john: aspirin. and not talking about the bottl , but aspirin itself. how about class? okay. you got a right. this is the only thing not made with theil. and why do y say this is important for people to know? >> it is important because if you're looking around your hous virtually everything that you have ttere is either made from oil or shipped by oil. john: it does not need to be. we could be shipping things of power. >> well, you could. you could. john: if we stop using oil we would not be able to have all o these things. >> there is no question. we he been around for 150 years.
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how much new while we have been able to find. john: i am glad you keep findin it. when we return, more minutes. our real way to save money and gasoline.
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♪ john: whenever gas prices go up they appear to make your car burn less gas. they are all garbage. automakers would install it because it would give them a sales advance. however, there is a way to save on gas without driving less tha does work. is called hyper myelin. special correspondent kennedy does it. >> let's . come on. john: she livesn los angel and drives a lot and has mastered for techniques. the first i you have heard of before. lighten up on the gas pedal. >> which means when you're at a stoplight an you are about to go, do not just jamn the gas. yoo're wasting fuel. start slow and just get going
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cruising. my drive the people behind you crazy, but who cares. he is that happy because i'm no going as fast as you'd like. john: the next technique is mor controversial, said shifting into neutral and coasting. >> i shifted into neutral. you cannot go in neutral when you're going downhill in california, but it is okay because they're going uphill. you ought to coasted to a stoplight. and i can stay neutral. john: it is against the law to coast the downhill in many states but it does save gas. >> effective and fun. of a sudden you get even addicted to putting your car in a true whener you can. john: filling tires to the recommended level also makes a difference. the robber manufacturers association says 50 percent of americans do this.
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another controversial technique is drastic, osely following another car, better yet a truck breaks the wind and creates a little vacuum. there is danger we are told not to tailgate. the hyper mileage techniques to work acc is iton the this will be derek carr. >> i can see the range of my ca for run of gas. you can see it go up and yo can add miles on to the range in ust a few short miles i have alady added 10 miles to my rae. >> you are saving a couple of bucks but risking your life tailgating these people. >> i risk my life every weekend. i will get t the particulars, but less to say that we're not missingany of that. driving itself as the most dangous thing the we do. i know until a semis.
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full i let them break the wind to give you a little bit more fuel efficiency. john: califoia said he should allow for feed for miles-per-hour. the 65 miles-per-hour, supposed to be too moderate and 60 feet, 17 car lengths back. no one does that. 3 feet, 13 car lengths. >> in new hampshire is-2 car lengths. john: that was a joke. >> that's not true. john: this does save you some money. testing is illegal down el. >> you kind of slingshot. you accelerate, get going, and put it into neutral. you essentially have to do it i the right hand granma lane. that is the real danger. john: us consider how much mone you can savedoing this. the average person's nancy
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thousand $200 gasoline per year. you in our test saved 60 and a half percent. though the the ded $67 per year. did you come to like it. karzai am addicted. i staed doing it in 2008. gas prices have really gone up. i've tried to find a way to not y a hybrid. i wanted to keep my feet. [applause] this was the only way to do it. john: but you're saving hundred of dollars. is it good for us? we debate that next. [applause] ♪
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>> ramp up the availability of ethanol. >> politicians are telling us that ethanol will solve our problems. it sounds right. after all the main ingredient is corn. corn is grown right here in america. we did things like this commercial. john: of want to be a hero. his group promotes ethanol, though it did not make that commercial. james taylor who added t the heartld institute of environmental climate newslette
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is back to ay his argument is absurd. >> it is absurd that we will save money and make our country better through ethanol. rit now ethanol is substantially more expensive than gasoline, has been. in order to get from a to we have ted spend more money for fuel. that, of course, hurts the economy and reduces our standar of living. john: what do you mean a cost more? >> of the pump you're not seein thdifference in the mileage. other words, for ethanol you have to multiply the price by one-half to get the true price comparison with gasoline becaus it is no as concentrated cause the ha to use more. john: bob. >> well, he is just wrong. $0.50 below the price of gasoline at the terminal, and i is saving consumers money. john: is a bit lower priced because taxpayers are throwing money you?
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>> not all. ii fact, the ethanol industr receives no tax incentives will soever. the oil industry does. they get plenty of tax breaks. they get more than we do. the ethanol gets nothing. >> i love my friend, bob, but the fact of the matter is it at the mall was less expensive tha gasoline, and others would not have to go to the government telling them, you must pass a law to make people buy our product. [applause] john: wire you pay at the publi trough. >> if there was anything like a free market in energy today we would not need to. oil companies denied marketplac accessto at all. they do not allow marketers to sell other blends. john: have a they have the powe to stop the? >> franchise agreements. they absolutely controwhat is sold. they have control of the gasoline infrastructure, and th only thing that is broken in th
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dynamic that has allowed at the mall to be used anywhere in thi country is the renewable fuel standard, a policy that says, you know what, there are important economic energy and i our mental benefits. we want to reduce our dependenc on imported oil. some refiners going to have to use some easure of ethanol. john: they locked him out. >> the at the top companies can set up their own distribution network and have their own franchise agreements. none from the oil industry or anyone else is going to state legislatures, congress and sank pass a law locking them out and forcing people to file we have. john: second point, i was told is not oil is corn. it is cleaner for the air. >> it is, indeed. reducing the bacteria. carbon monoxide, toxics that ar in gasoline, and it is the only liqd transportation fuel that we have that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. is a greatbargain for the
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environment. >> if that is true why is almos every enronmental group including the ones that support you turned against it. >> it is not really at the oliveira against. they do not like direction mariculture. ose are different issues. %-recognize that ethanol is reducing carbon today. the fact of the matter is it is renewable. it is the only resource that we have today that is addressing that issue. john: ii is grown in america. isn't tt good for us? >> wireless grown in america as well. regarding the assertion that is better for the environment, it is essentially neutral when compared to gasoline and we're talking missions, carbon. but what bob does not bring up is the fact that growing corn for ethanol is very land intensive. right now 60,000 sqre miles of land is developed for ethanol production. that is an amount of land equal to the state of hawaii and the
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state of new jersey in tstate of delaware in the state of rhode island, the state of connecticut, the state of massachusetts. john: all of this land for ethanol that i could ea. so food costs more. someone is goingo start. well you get all the goodies. >> in fact what is happening is farmers are becoming far more efficient, growing more on each acre of land. my graduate from high school we3 got another 84 bushels per acre. today we are getting 160 bushel per acre. so we don't have to expand in orders to give more of the know. john: food is not cost more? >> it sure doesn't. >> the fact of the matter is ethanol diverts morehan 40 percent of the nation's corn crop away from food for humans, feed for cattle ranchers, poultry farmers. that has negative impact on prices. -in the sense that we pay more as a result.
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john: thank you. i say pay for your own ethanol and stop asking me for special deals. comi up, greedy oil companies. i say they actually do a wonderful thing for us. we should thank them. you've disagreed. but next, energy independence. how can that not be good? one of my next guests saysindep. [applause] ♪
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♪ [applause] john: rate is america give most of our oil? >> the middle east and the gulf
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of mexico. >> do we help fund terrorism? >> it pumps money intf how is your financial security. john: we should become energy independent. we agree with that, but the cat institute says independence is nonsense. it would increase therice of the middle east. a commodity, energy independenc is not protect you against bad
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stuff that happens abroad. >> there is no correlation. the gimmick of t day and find it. there's no correlation whatsoever. >> i would argue tha if you denominate energy independence in terms of oil, if you want to change the game entirely in denominated and wil we might call fuel choice. you had a segme about ethanol.
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yeah of the abundant source and tn it into ethanol which when available to the consumer as an option in addition to gasoline, in addition, perhaps, to ethano use only create conditions that actually can destroy opec. there is a mosque that was in boston that was an incubator f the attack there. that has its financing from saudi arabia. that makes a real difference. >> i believe almost everything that caters suggests. >> bad idea. john: stop rowi money to these madrasahs. >> they are he. >> if the united states did not send money to saudi arabia for crude, where we get about 10 percent of our crude that a we just got it from the north sea.
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it would not matter much. we displace the customers and then buy from thsaudis. the idea is that our actions somehoench em beyond what otherwise would be is to simply not true. >> unless you actually are usin another fuel in the mix. this is the point. you guys like consumers to have a say. this i know. sit-down. this requires the government saying we would like the consumer to have skills. this is an important point. what has happened here is thank to the mandate in brazil we hav seen of manufacturers as catche making cars that can hughes alcohol based fuels.
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they just don't market and the way in our country. >> they wa as long as there are exclusively configured t use gasoline. if and when you don't need to ndate it. >> is the cheapest fuel available. you're right about one thing. compressed natural gas, the problem as you understand that it would take hundreds of billions of dollars to invest i the infrastructure necessary to get from gas stations to delivery pipelines. the reason you don't make that is it is not clear it can be profitable ten years from now. if y actually open the market my guess is you'll find the cos
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of methanol dramatically declining in that is what the economists think. john: that has not been used on new of four. and i should answer the questio i asked for, is our crude oil come from? 43% from america, next is canada . in saudi arabia, mexico is four, venezuela. delirious to go back and listen to politicians promise energy independence. always about to happen. >> this intollrable excessive dependence. >> they promise. >> burning as closer to energy independence to our untry by 1980. >> 1985. >> and ten years. john: i don't know about ten years, but now we are told that pinkston fracking for natural gas it may happen. >> it could happenif we actually allowed to hpen. help u get fuel choice an
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exercise that option at the gas price. >> what kind of cars to build a maintenance to put in the cars. >>ut i don't know i the future whether it will be most efficient, by valdez so, electric por. we'll know what the most efficient fuel will be we know that it will deliver if it make economic sense. but frank is talking about is the government forced transition . >> here is wt i'm saying. since 2006 american automakers ong others have been manufacturing cars to sell brazil. they have had to make them flexible fuel because governmen there has a mandate.
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nonmanufacturi a whole new car that would be government imposed . this is using the cars that we have by and large. john: thank you. coming up, a i don't know. mo. and the audience gets to grill our guests.
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♪ [applause] john: we are back with your questions for my guests. jerry taylor from the cato institute, jamesaylor, not the singer. >> i am the original. john: from the heartland. frank gaffney of the centeror security policy. first from my facebook page. what a way to unshackle the energy so that it could be produced more efciently. >> obviously you can open up federal lands for drilling wher they're currently not allowed, for instance the arctic nationa wildlife refuge in the gulf of mexico is a simple thing that w could do, but the reality is hydraulic fracturing giving as to additional million barrels per day which is a pretty big %-governme interference for the
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most part, producing -- john: in new york is bay and. >> but most of the reserves right now in north dakota are producing flat ot. private lands are producing a tremendous amount of ude. we are seeing another surge fro california. jo: the audiee. >> you heard the term because oil, and i am ndering if that is a myth. >> we are opposing the point. we are all going to freeze in the dark. >> mosteople don't appreciate only 35 percent of the crude-oi we have an upper -- reserves ev gets put into the market. and technology changes allows t be more economic. if we were to move from 35% extraction to 40 percent extraction, i would be like getting the most toaudi arabia's to the global food market. we will people are saying is we have hit a dead end and biotechnology and will never innovate and find cheaper ways
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to get some of the sons of the market. you know how dubious that oposition is. if current trend continues we will be a larger producer of crude oil and even the saudis b around 2020. >> did you mentioned government mandate is in place now. wouldn't itake more sense if the solution was to try to you rid of theandate we already have instead of piling a new on on top of it? >> it is not a government mandate. it is what has developed over the years. we developed an entire industry around using gasoline. people who sell it and people who drive their -- build their cars. we have a choice. the industry did choose a long time ago. it is not the government. now we have cell phones. we have an industry that focuse on one particular problem. it does not mean there and less as a practical matter the institutional interests say.
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>> right now we have automobile el efficiency standards inthe united states th tell other companies of fuel-efficient car have to be. that is forced. they getcredit for beating the standard they produce vehicles. there are millions of cars on the ad today that are not flex fuel. the reason, the only reason tha detroit makes this stuff is because they get regulatory preferences to build this stuff. >> is up slightly not true. >> the number of cars in the united states that a marketed aslex fuel vehicles does follow that pattern. john: i cannot even fall you guys. [laughter] >> they're making a brazil. john: stop. >> yes, ssr. >> today we don't have a truly free market for anything. if we had truly free market for energy how would that chann the energy we use. and what a lot of the alternative energy be used, eve feasible unnaturally free-market . >> that is a great question.
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first of all, energy wod be cheaper. how would that shape the market? tht is a fanttic question because that gets to the heart of thessue which is, i cannot dermine, some government bureaucrat cannot determine, even the best energy economic expert in the world cannot tell us what will be 20 or 30 years from now the most efficient, economical energy source. that is why governments to allo the free market to work and therefore entrepreneurs will bring to mart those products and technologies that work best. >> you say you want the government to create a manda to give us more choice in the market, but already have a choe. we can choose to buy or not to buy products. are you reallys saying you don't like the choices we have made? >> i know think so. what i am saying is you could have much more choice. are talking about why the prices are so high. its that our government controlling the prices. it isthe saudi government. when they decide that we are producing too much and it is going to reduce their profit,
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they drive down the amount of that opec supplies. that is so we can do it we hhve to. >> the fact that they make decisions about how much crude oil to produce is a fact of lif like the fact that the sun rise in the morning. there's nothing we can do about it. the best that we can do is ovide for an efficient marketplace that allows for the right amount -- the right marke response. in the government tries to respond jimmy carter wanted to see better fuels. george bush, the second george bush wanted freedom cars run by fuel cells. you don't hear that being discussed today. we hrd promises of methanol being cheaper than gasoline in the 70's, and it is still a dollar a gallon more expensive in the latest version is methanol. if and when this competitive, beeve me, people want to and will make tons of money. john: on that note, thank you. coming up, what i say everyime we g to the gas station we
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ought to think of oil companies. ♪ the
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♪ john: to final minutes. first, better for your car if you buy premium gas. must be. it costs more. >> i guess it eps your engine cleaner. >> when i put gular in my car it runs out faster.
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>> i feel like it is safer to put in more premium gas. john: it is not saf or better. the few cars withigh compression engines like tories and corvettes need -- need higher octane, but for 90 percent of the cars it is no better. it just waste your money. now, the men's wear most of you probably don't figure with me, most everyone says gas costs to much. >> today was over $4. that is ridiculous. much too much. >> wait too much. >> how low is the american public supposed to afford. john: and here we keep close track of gas prices. >> the 16th straight day. john: the most popular anchor tells me. >> zero companieare by your friend. we are getting hosed at the pump . john: those? of many of you agree with bill o'reilly? a few of you. all right. this is a "stossel" audience. the majority of your rit. we would be looking to get an
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equal hosing when we pay for health care or college tuition because gas is cheap. we should think those companies. thk what they do to brg us a gallon of gas, such debt of the ground sometime from moral to the war zones are deep beneath the notion. drills nowbeen then dig sideways through as much as 7 miles of earth. what they find is then delivere through long billion-$ pipeline and put in monstrously -- motrsly expensive tankers to ship across the ocean and then refined into several types of gasoline, transported and trucks that cos and is a thousand dollars until finally it gets hereto your gas station. and even after all that the gasoline per ounce still costs less than the ball rather that they sell at those gas stations. government produced gas it would cost $50 per gallon, and there
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would be srtages. people complain about oil company profits. we should be glad that they mak lo of money. profit is what gets them to fin more oil so that we have supplies tomorrow. and just howuch profit to then make? well, ape's profit margin is about 24%. mcdonald's, about 20%. exxon mobile, the biggest oil company, a 11%. how much profit is tha per gallon of the pump? people think it is a dollar or two, but exxon clears abt $0.7 per gallon. governments, by contrast, gabba -- grab an avege $0.27, the average gas tax. if anyone is greedy it is governmen oil compans cannot be too greedy because they have competition. that is our show. we will have another new tossel" show next thursday nanette 9:00 p.m. on that fox business network. thank you for watching. ♪ this.e]
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>> "the willis report" is coming up next. thanks for watching. gerri: hello, i am gerri willis. tonight on "the willis report." as homeowner claims rise and natural disasters mount, insurance companies are becoming stingier with payouts. also, getting the best deal when you buy a used car. and your medical privacy. we have you covered tonight on "the willis report." our top story tonight is insurance companies becong stingier with

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