天价石油是否存在价格欺诈？

O'REILLY: In the "Factor Investigation¹" segment tonight, more than 100,000 people have voted in the BillOReilly.com poll, which asks do you believe the U.S. oil companies are price gouging²? Eighty-nine percent said yes. Just 11 percent do not believe that.

By the way, the price of a gallon of regular unleaded is up about $1 a gallon from a year ago.

But the perception is not the same as the reality. And we want to know exactly who's making all the money and how they're doing so. With us now, John BIRGER, senior writer at Fortune magazine and Elizabeth MACDONALD, senior editor at Forbes magazine.

All right, Elizabeth, you were here last time. And this is basically as dumbed down as I can make it so even I understand it.

Oil comes to the United States from the OPEC countries in tankers³, and it arrives. And then it goes into refineries⁴ around the country. All right?

The oil companies pay for that to happen. They pay OPEC. They pay for the tankers. They pay for the refineries, all right? The big five, most of them.

It gets into the refinery⁵. They take the oil. They turn it into gasoline. That comes to everybody's gas station. Who sets the price of the gallon of gasoline?

MACDONALD: The oil and gas companies, based on what the oil and gas actually gets — is trading at on the open market, on the commodities exchanges.

But the problem here is that when gas station owners are telling you that that they feel that the refineries are gouging consumers, then people ought to sit up and take notice and pay attention.

O'REILLY: All right. So the guy ,O'REILLY, he's — what is he? Chevron⁶? He's the CEO of Chevron . He sits there with his guys at a big, long, shiny table. And does he say, "I'm going to charge $3.50 a gallon?"

MACDONALD: Based on what the market will bear, he will — he along with his other executives at his company will see what the other oil and gas companies are charging, and they'll figure out what the wholesale⁷ price should be.

O'REILLY: So they're all looking at each other?

MACDONALD: Based on what the market is telling them in terms of the commodities exchanges.

O'REILLY: Now nobody knows what the market is, Mr. Berger. Nobody knows what that is. It's not a person.

See, if I buy a McDonald's Big Mac, I know the Big Mac was set at a price by the McDonald's Corporation. They said, "We're going to charge $1.75 for the Big Mac." I know that. But I don't know what the market is or the commodity or the mercantile. These aren't human beings.

BIRGER, SENIOR WRITER, FORTUNE MAGAZINE: I can tell you, there are no big, long, shiny tables where a cabal⁸ of oil moguls are out there setting prices. These prices are set on open markets by traders and investors⁹ all around the globe, who are simultaneously¹⁰ bidding or selling and buying oil. And the price...

O'REILLY: Are you telling me the five big oil companies don't buy oil? Of course they do.

BIRGER: Of course they do, yes. But they don't...

O'REILLY: They negotiate the...

BIRGER: But the chairman of Chevron doesn't wake up one morning and say the price of gasoline is going to be $3 a gallon.

O'REILLY: Well, doesn't the chairman of Chevron, David O'REILLY, say to OPEC, "I'll pay you this amount for the oil. This is what I'll pay you"?

BIRGER: No.

O'REILLY: He doesn't say that?

MACDONALD: No.

O'REILLY: He doesn't control his product?

BIRGER: No, he doesn't.

O'REILLY: All right. That's interesting.

MACDONALD: I disagree with that. On Shell's own web site, they say that they go in and they set what the price of gasoline will be, based on what the market is telling them that the market will bear.

O'REILLY: That's what I think. They charge what they think they can get away with.

MACDONALD: Right. And the problem is what's going on is we've had a lot of oil company mergers¹¹. I'm only reporting back what the independent or the grand gas station owners are telling me. I'm basically a reporter here.

The gas stations want supply and demand to dictate¹² the prices. They want an open market. They want the free market to work.

O'REILLY: But you can't have an open market when you only have five major oil companies.

1 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

2 gouging   

n.刨削[槽]v.凿( gouge的现在分词 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出…

参考例句：

• Banks and credit-card companies have been accused of gouging their customers. 银行和信用卡公司被指控欺诈顾客。 来自辞典例句
• If back-gouging is applied, grinding to bright metal is required. 如果采用火焰气刨，则应将其打磨至可见光亮的金属表面。 来自互联网

3 tankers   

运送大量液体或气体的轮船[卡车]( tanker的名词复数 )； 油轮； 罐车； 油槽车

参考例句：

• They should stop offloading waste from oil tankers into the sea. 他们应当停止从油轮上往海里倾倒废弃物。
• The harbour admits large tankers and freighters. 这个港口容得下巨型油船和货轮。

4 refineries   

精炼厂( refinery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The efforts on closedown and suspension of small sugar refineries, small saccharin refineries and small paper mills are also being carried out in steps. 关停小糖厂、小糖精厂、小造纸厂的工作也已逐步展开。
• Hence the sitting of refineries is at a distance from population centres. 所以，炼油厂的厂址总在远离人口集中的地方。

5 refinery   

n.精炼厂，提炼厂

参考例句：

• They built a sugar refinery.他们建起了一座榨糖厂。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

6 chevron   

n.V形臂章；V形图案

参考例句：

• He wore shoulderstrap rank slides with sergeant's chevrons.他佩戴标示级别的肩章，上面有中士的V形标志。
• The chevron or arrow road sign indicates a sharp bend to the left or right.V形或箭头路标表示有向左或向右的急转弯。

7 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

8 cabal   

n.政治阴谋小集团

参考例句：

• He had been chosen by a secret government cabal.他已被一个秘密的政府阴谋集团选中。
• The illegal aspects of the cabal's governance are glaring and ubiquitous.黑暗势力的非法统治是显而易见的并无处不在。

9 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

10 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

11 mergers   

n.（两个公司的）合并( merger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Mergers fall into three categories: horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate. 合并分为以下三种：横向合并，纵向合并和混合合并。 来自辞典例句
• Many recent mergers are concentrated within specific industries, particularly in retailing, airlines and communications. 现代许多合并企业集中进行某些特定业务，在零售业、民航和通讯业中更是如此。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

12 dictate   

v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令

参考例句：

• It took him a long time to dictate this letter.口述这封信花了他很长时间。
• What right have you to dictate to others?你有什么资格向别人发号施令？