Big Oil defends profits before irate senators

Comment #10

jarasan — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:37:13 GMT

Oh yeah Maxine Waters let it slip yesterday, they want to socialize the oil companies and have the govt. run them! She got caught and spilled the agenda right on camera while being recorded. These morons want to go the way of everybody's little buddy, Hugo Chavez, next T.V, next farming, next the newspapers, next the lottery (whoops they got that already)!

Comment #9

jarasan — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:32:43 GMT

Every American senator is a millionaire some multi. some Rockefeller, they truly disgust me. I want to know where they "stole" their money from.. I am so ready for term limits, what a bunch of pompous hypocrites, they have lost it, if something doesn't happen soon, the Constitution and our freedoms will be a thing of the past. Leahy is a marroon, Durbin is a jerk, Schumer is a schmuck, they are facists in liberal clothes.

Comment #8

Rick G — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:32:33 GMT

Well said, Todd, and spot on.

Comment #7

Todd — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:12:08 GMT

It is a useless gesture to bring those guys in t yell at them and complain about prices. Utterly worthless. These Congress men and women are too spineless to do the things that would *really* bring about change and lower energy prices. Every time an energy measure comes up for a vote, they vote it down. Whether it's new places to drill for oil, new refineries, nuclear power, coal, or anything else. The only thing they seem to muster is subsidies for big corn busine... [ More ]

Comment #6

truecritic — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:55:33 GMT

Oil executives make too much money and so do the hourly workers. Congress should cap their profits to a total of one million per year - per oil company or for that matter any company. Why isn't one million after paying all expenses, wages and salaries enough? If they want anymore, let them do it the old fashioned way by winning the lottery. ....uh....sorry, just woke up. I was having a pleasant dream.

Comment #5

four4me — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:40:39 GMT

If their intent is to control the stock market then they have succeeded. If their intent is to bankrupt the working class and poor they are succeeding big mistake on their part. However their profits will drop drastically when Americans can no longer afford to purchase fuel because everything else will cost so much. I see a bubble here and it's about to burst.

Comment #4

Rick G — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:54:25 GMT

It's flat out price gouging. In this case a handful of profiteers are impacting the economy in such a negative fashion that it becomes more than just unethical.

Comment #3

pacattack05 — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:37:32 GMT

Sorry I brought up true meaning and politics in the same sentence....My bad....!!...LOL Elephant Eyebrows... <br

Comment #2

time*treat — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:27:36 GMT

While it's easy to think Congress is doing us a favor by bringing up the oil industry profit margins, Congress sees fit to ignore that the federal (and state gov'ts) tax oil from the wellhead to the refinery and at the pump (where they hide the amount they collect). The equipment and each component (sales tax), the machine tools (sales tax), the salaries of those who work in the industry (income taxes), permits & licenses (fees) - all have a piece taken out, but they 'throw the rock and hide their hand'. At least the oilmen are producing a product for their money.... [ More ]

Comment #1

pacattack05 — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:26:00 GMT

The environmentalists need a find a new hobby. I can't belive how a small minority can have such a huge influence on how the country should be run. These tree huggers must have some dirt on these law makers. That is the only way I can think of how they get away with this robbery. It's not the oil, but the refineries, or the lack of. It's a big scam, and now their next target is the moose. The high price of gas obviously isn't hurting the tree huggers, so it makes me t... [ More ]

Original Blog Entry: Big Oil defends profits before irate senators

JADELottery — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:39:42 GMT

Big Oil defends profits before irate senators

By H. JOSEF HEBERT,AP

Posted: 2008-05-21 16:45:06

WASHINGTON (AP) - On a day oil prices leaped to unheard-of highs, senators lined up Big Oil's biggest executives and pummeled them with complaints that they're pretending to be hapless victims while raking in record profits.

Where is the corporate conscience? Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies.

It's all about economics, came the reply. Supply and demand. The company leaders tried to shift attention from motorists' anger over $4-a-gallon gasoline to a debate over new areas for drilling.

But senators at the Judiciary Committee hearing weren't having any of that. They wanted to press the executives about public anguish over paying $60 or more to fill up a car's gas tank.

People we represent are hurting, the companies you represent are profiting, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the executives. He said there's a disconnect between legitimate supply issues and the oil and gasoline prices motorists are seeing.

The executives, sitting shoulder to shoulder in the hearing room, said they understood people were hurting, but they tried to blunt the emotion with economic analysis.

Profits have been huge in absolute terms, conceded J. Stephen Simon, executive vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., but they must be viewed in the context of the massive scale of our industry. And high earnings in the current up cycle are needed for investments in the long term, including when profits will be down.

'Current up cycle,' that's a nice term when people can't afford to go to work because gasoline is costing so much, replied Leahy with sarcasm.

The fundamental laws of supply and demand are at work, said John Hofmeister, chairman of Shell Oil Co., acknowledging it is something the oil industry has been saying for some time and that the explanation may sound repetitive and uninteresting.

Hofmeister was joined by executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP America Inc. and ConocoPhilips Co. Together the five companies earned $36 billion during the first three months of this year.

As the executives sought to explain their profits and why prices are so high, the global oil markets were moving into new, uncharted highs, touching $133 a barrel for the first time. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline hit $3.80, with $4 showing up in more places.

The exchanges got personal, too.

Simon was asked what his total compensation was at Exxon, a company that made $40.6 billion last year. Simon replied it was $12.5 million.

John Lowe, executive vice president of ConocoPhillips Co., said he didn't recall his total compensations. So did Peter Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron Corp. Hofmeister said his was about $2.2 million but was not among the top five salaries at his company's international parent. Robert Malone, chairman of BP America Inc., put his in excess of $2 million.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., noting that Exxon's profits had nearly quadrupled from $11.5 billion in 2002, said he had heard nothing from the oilmen that would explain why profits have gone up so high when the consumer is suffering so much.

The executives, appearing under oath, cited tight global supplies with scant spare production capacity and the fact that large areas of land and offshore waters remain offlimits to drilling. And they said they're worried Congress was talking of requiring the five companies to pay more taxes.

I urge you to resist these punitive policies, said Hofmeister.

It was not what many senators wanted to hear.

You have just a litany of complaints that you're all just hapless victims of a system, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the executives. Yet you rack up record profits ... quarter after quarter after quarter.

One senator after another cited the pain that high energy prices are causing farmers, small businesses and people trying to find a way to afford a vacation trip this summer.

Is there anybody here that has any concerns about what you're doing to this country with the prices that you're charging and the profits that you're taking? Durbin asked.

The titans of America's oil industry sat quietly for a moment.

Senator, replied Exxon's Simon, We have a lot of concern about that. And we're doing all we can to put downward pressure on prices.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

05/21/08 16:43 EDT

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