Pump Rage? Get Even by Buying ExxonMobil

Moreover, Deutsche notes that ethanol is 30% less fuel-efficient than gasoline, which means that a car will travel only about two-thirds the distance on a gallon of ethanol than on a gallon of gasoline.

In a situation when solutions are scant, it is easy to just fall back on the easy ploy and accuse service-station operators of price gouging. But that really misses the point. The independent station owner is almost as much of a victim as the consumer, as he faces escalating wholesale costs, rising credit card fees and the enmity of his customers.

Your Friend, Big Oil

Rather than complaining, investors are better off figuring out how to make a buck off this turn of events. One of the best opportunities out there right now is industry heavyweight ExxonMobil, which is paradoxically both the largest public company in America and one of the least appreciated.

ExxonMobil is involved with every facet of the business, from oil and gas exploration to transportation, storage, refining and marketing, as well as power generation and coal mining. Its predecessor companies have been around since the days of John D. Rockefeller and his infamous Standard Oil Trust in the early 1900s, so it has eluded no end of witch hunts.

It has 22.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves, with 51.2 billion barrels in additional potential, which it uses as feedstock at refineries that pump out 6.4 million barrels of gasoline and fuel oil per day.