Can you say being ripped a new one?

Big Oil Execs Defend Big Profits
Companies Earned Combined $123B Last Year

POSTED: 7:06 am EDT April 1, 2008
UPDATED: 2:54 pm EDT April 1, 2008

Executives from the big five oil companies are appearing before Congress to answer questions about how they're raking in big profits while consumers are being hammered at the pump.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP America, Chevron and Conoco-Phillips earned a combined $123 billion last year, in part because of rising prices. The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming wants to know why, with such big profits, the oil industry is trying to hold on to $18 billion in tax breaks.

"On April Fools' Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., as his committee began hearing from the oil company executives.
Click here to find out more!

Lawmakers were looking for answers to the soaring fuel costs a day after the Energy Department said the national average price of gasoline reached a record $3.29 a gallon and global oil prices remained above $100 a barrel although supplies of both gasoline and oil seemed to be adequate.

"The anger level is rising significantly," said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., relating what he had heard in his district during the recent two-week congressional recess.

Alluding to the fact that congressmen often don't rate very high in opinion polls, Cleaver told the executives: "Your approval rating is lower than ours and that means your down low."

"I heard what you are hearing," John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., told Markey, adding in prepared testimony that he knows that "Americans are worried about the rising price of energy.... These cost increases are hitting consumers hard, particularly the poor and those on fixed incomes."

The oil companies have argued that they need the tax breaks for continued investment in exploration, production and refinery expansion, while lawmakers said the profits they're making should be enough incentive. (I smell BULLSHIT!)

"This new gas price record is a perfect example of why we need these oil companies to go on the record with the American people to discuss our dangerous dependence on oil," said Markey. "These companies are defending billions in federal subsidies needed for renewable fuels and clean energy while reaping over a hundred billion dollars in profits in just the last year alone."

J.S. Simon, Exxon Mobil's senior vice president, said the earnings are reasonable when looked at in context. (Really, how are all your houses, cars and jets doing?)

"Our earnings, though high in absolute terms, need to be viewed in the context of the scale and cyclical, long-term nature of our industry as well as the huge investment requirements," Simon said. Last year the oil and gas industry earned 8.3 cents per dollar of sales, only a little higher than the Dow Jones Industrial Average for major industries, he argued in prepared testimony.

The House has approved legislation to end the tax breaks, but it hasn't made it through the Senate.

President George W. Bush has threatened to veto any such bill that does.

What an ASS!!!