It's petty cash to them. If the companies didn't pay, the taxpayers would be subsidizing them.

The companies don't pay the fee, the consumer does, it's called higher energy prices.

Higher energy prices are from corporate greed and the spec. market. $4,000 is pocket change.

You guys apparently don't understand economics very well. Look at the profit margins of oil companies and you will realize that their margins are much lower than the profits of companies from most other sectors such as retail, bio-medical, manufacturing, etc.

The real fact is that the higher the price of crude oil, the higher the costs are for the oil companies because the price of services increases substantially. It costs well over a million dollars to drill and complete a single well with no guarantees that the well will even pay itself off. Technology (i.e. expensive) has helped the success rate of wells substantially, but has also dramatically increased the cost of drilling. Then you take into acount the cost of transporting, refining, transporting, and marketing the oil, it is amazing that they make any money. Oil is cheap. It has always been cheap, and it is still relatively cheap. Try filling you gas tank up with bottled water and see what the price is per gallon.