You've seen them on TV, though you might not be fully aware that they're sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute (you have to squint to notice that). They purportedly feature John and Jane Q. Public, who are asked what they think about increasing tax on gas in these tough economic times. Naturally, they get the expected answers that tax increases are bad for business, the economy and individuals. But that question is kind of like asking people if they'd be in favor of sitting in the dentist's chair for an hour getting a root canal. No, I wouldn't, thank you very much.

But the larger problem is that this question is hoisted out of context and made into an abstraction with no connection to the real world. You see these ads are designed to drum up sympathy for the poor, long-suffering oil industry, beset as it is by all sorts of governmental depredations goodies: such as the oil depletion allowance and the exemption of gasoline from EPA rules regarding carcinogens (gasoline contains benzine).

Anyway, the ads are designed to prevent an $80 billion dollar increase in the tax bill of oil companies, that money to go for such things as increasing our investment in alternative energy sources. And we all know that the oil industry could not afford this! Consider poor ExxonMobil -- they only raked in a $39 billion dolllar profit in their record quarterly earnings. Where ever would they find the money to pay their larger tax bill?

But wait -- aren't the oil companies diligently using those profits to expand oil production?

Well, oil rig activity for exploration and development has plunged 50% from last year, so the answer to that question is no. Increased refinery capacity? No. Increased tanker capacity? No.

So, what exactly are they doing with all this loot? Increasing dividends and buying back shares (to boost the stock price)! (And they're only motivated by tenderhearted concern for your pension plan!)

More to the point, we use about 800 million gallons of oil products per day (Gas/diesel/jet fuel/ heating oil/etc.), so every time there's a 10 cents/gallon increase in the price of said oil products, another $80 million flows into the coffers of the oil companies every day.

Let's see -- that works out to $800 million every ten days... $8 billion dollars every 100 days... $29 billion every year.

In case you haven't noticed, the price of gas has risen about 20 cents per gallon in the past few weeks. And even though we are still in a recession, the price of crude has risen to $79/barrel from January's low of $30/barrel.

In other words, fluctuations in the price of oil have a greater impact on the prices we pay than the proposed $80 billion tax hike. In fact, that tax hike might signal to OPEC that we are serious about cutting our use of oil, thus putting us less at their mercy. But the API would never tell you that.

They just want to keep your bucks pouring into their coffers.