What can you get for 30 Loonies...?

[westernvicki]

Is it true in the US refineries cannot be retailers? I was told once that this was to insure the competitive nature of wholesaler and supplier, that a refiner could not be a fuel retailer, with the target result to insure better price balance to consumers?

Does anyone know if this is true.

[bucket]

I think the same holds true for cattle in the states. The packers can't own cattle.

It's to keep competition.

May no longer be true.

[TOM4CWB]

WesternV

Here is Wicki on Flying J;

"FJ Management Inc.,[1] formerly known as Flying J Inc., is a privately held U.S. corporation which operates convenience stores, oil & refining, banking, and insurance businesses. Along with Pilot Corporation and CVC Capital Partners, it is a joint-owner of Pilot Flying J, the largest truck stop chain in the United States."

Wicki on ExxonMobile:
"In 1998, Exxon and Mobil signed a US$73.7 billion definitive agreement to merge and form a new company called Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest company on the planet. After shareholder and regulatory approvals, the merger was completed on November 30, 1999. The merger of Exxon and Mobil was unique in American history because it reunited the two largest companies of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust, Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey/Exxon and Standard Oil Co. of New York/Mobil, which had been forcibly separated by government order nearly a century earlier. This reunion resulted in the largest merger in US corporate history.

In 2000, ExxonMobil sold a refinery in Benicia, California and 340 Exxon-branded stations to Valero Energy Corp., as part of an FTC-mandated divestiture of California assets. ExxonMobil continues to supply petroleum products to over 700 Mobil-branded retail outlets in California."

So it depends who you are... and where the operations are!

[perfecho]

There was a Sherman Anti Trust Law from the 1800's that was meant to protect competition...but since about Reagan, governments have found it beneficial(been lobbied) to ignore....