Americans are being fleeced by the oil companies. Free enterprise is based on being able to sell your products for a reasonable price without gouging the consumers.

A monopoly is supposed to be illegal. What we have is a combined monopoly by big oil, operating in collusion with each other to control the market. The ploy has strangled the market and has resulted in huge profits for them.

A Democratic senator has proposed a tax on windfall profits that would quickly bring the prices for but don’t expect this to happen with the present administration. All the president has to do is threaten to push this proposal through and watch the oil companies quickly find a way to back off the prices.

Congress does not have the courage to fight big oil because many are tied to them.

Every oil company has reported higher profits than ever before. If gasoline is so scarce, why haven’t we seen any close down? The answer: it is a sham.

I question how each service station knows when to up their price simultaneously with each other.

The oil companies use every excuse they can think of to show why the price increases. They have using hurricanes, floods, uprisings, wars, and lack of refining facilities as their excuses for the high prices. We have had all these problems in the past but we have paid a reasonable price before.

These excuses are not valid now. It is time we called it what it is: the fleecing of America.

Edward Davis

East Orland