Oil Execs to Be Asked to Justify Profits

[NVMojo]

WASHINGTON (AP) -

Top executives of three major oil companies will be asked by senators next week why some of their industry's estimated $96 billion in record profits this year shouldn't be used to help people having trouble paying their energy bills.

Lee Raymond, chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp., Jim Mulva, chief executive of ConocoPhillips, and John Hofmeister, president of the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, will be among the industry executives to be questioned at a Senate hearing, according to congressional and industry officials.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because a final list of witnesses yet to be completed. The three companies together earned more than $22 billion during the July-September quarter this year when crude oil prices soared briefly to $70 a barrel and motorists were paying well over $3 gallon at the pump after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast.

snip...

"Consumers are increasingly feeling that they are being taken for a ride," Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said at a hearing last week.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-cong/2005/nov/02/110202135.html

[phantom power]

1. But we're all Pure Capitalists! Profit is it's own justification!

[calimary]

21. Yeah! The PRIVATE SECTOR, the PRIVATE SECTOR, dontcha know?

That's the magic formula that cures all ills! Let's just step back and let the PRIVATE SECTOR do its thing - unincumbered by those terrible regulations and that annoying accountability and other such irrelevant stuff. There's money to be made. And THAT is Job One.

[SoFlaJet]

2. I'm half expecting

the same kind of responses that the tobacco execs gave-like what profits?

[Jacobin]

3. Thank GAWD they won't ask Halliburton to justify its

blood money.

Now that would just be plain un-American

[tabasco]

10. Somebody should ask Dick Cheney ...

how he has made over $8 million from his Halliburton stock, since the Iraq war began. He told the American people on Meet The Press, during the first Bu$h campaign, that he had "severed all financial ties with the company."

I know it's not as important as a blowjob, but why doesn't the whore media ask this simple question?

Oil company profits at an all-time high?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

[Mountainman]

4. The justification is that they had a meeting with Cheney back in 2001 and

planned the whole thing. So Uncle Dick says it's OK.

We need to investigate those meetings again.

[redqueen]

5. "Consumers are increasingly feeling that they are being taken for a ride,"

It's not a "feeling", Sen. Repuke. They're not feeling they're being taken for a ride, they're waking up to that FACT, you numbskull.

[NVMojo]

12. It's like Pre-FDR days ...

[ck4829]

6. Did they really think that they were going to get away with this?

[IChing]

7. Lee Raymond, chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp. speaks here photo!!!!

YES THIS IS A REAL PICTURE OF HIM

[wordpix]

11. when we say, "Fat cat," we aren't kidding

[IChing]

14. Exxon own site: not Corporate Shareholder but Corporate Citizen.

think about it


Exxon own site:
http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Citizenship/Corp_citizenship_Com_foundation.asp

[NVMojo]

29. fecking eeeeuuuuwwww!!!

[Orrin_73]

31. LOL, what a resemblance

[gratuitous]

8. They'll proffer their standard justification

"We stole that money fair and square."

"What profits are you talking about?"

"You don't ask the burglar who broke into your house to return the insulin just because you need it to live, do you?"

"Sic 'em, Dick!"

or the old reliable phrase, the one that will cause every Republican on the committee to bow down in obeisance, ask no further questions, and during the interruption, all the executives will skedaddle out of the hearing room:

"The magic of market place."

[napi21]

9. I'm sure this is being pushed because of 06 elections, but I don't

care what the reason for the hearings is, I want to hear these guys try to justify their actions! I don't which Senators are going to be sitting on these hearings, but I hope it some of the tough ones on BOTH sides!

The unfortunate thing is, even if they are found to have price gouged, what's the possible penalty other than bad publicity?

[rkc3]

13. I don't know why everyone is complaining about their profits.

We should be damn lucky they don't let the market dictate gasoline prices.

The oil companies keep their prices just low enough to prevent us from finding a new way to work, to travel, or heat our homes. And they keep them high enough to show Wall Street they are making incremental improvements to profitability.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be pressing the government to fund mass transit or renewable sources of energy or trying to be smart in our energy usage - we should. But the big picture is this - despite their profits, the oil companies have been generous to us.

[Occulus]

15. You forgot the 'sarcasm' tag. n/t

[rkc3]

18. Nope - not sarcasm or flamebait.

I'm serious.

Think about it for a minute - they have the only source of fuel for the world's economy. They could charge whatever they want for this resource.

I believe they keep the price far lower than we would pay for it.

Why?

Because they don't want us to find another source of energy. Worse than that, they don't want our government to seriously fund research into new methods of fueling our cars and trucks.

What would happen if the next administration (because we know it wouldn't come from the pricks currently in office) decided to look for new ways to fuel America? What if they funded it like the space program? Exxon would be fucked. And so would the Saudis. (And I bet gas prices would drop by quite a bit.)

The oil companies and OPEC know this - and they consider this every time they look at short- and long-term pricing.

[phantom power]

22. Yes... The successful parasite never kills it's host!

[rkc3]

23. That and they know they're just greedy enough to piss off the rabid left.

With the current state of hyperbole in the media - we're outside the margin. If they cranked up prices too high, the moderates and conservatives would join in and something would have to be done.

[IChing]

24. "Rabid Left" interesting choice of words.........

:popcorn:

[rkc3]

25. Using their words to make my point - put down the popcorn.

[IChing]

26. OK

"I don't know why everyone is complaining about their profits."
"Rabid Left"


you had me going for a moment.

[rkc3]

27. I'm just saying it could be worse - gas prices that is.

[grumpy old fart]

16. lol...yeah, the big lugs.

Give me a freakin' break. They have one objective, keeping us tied to big oil while rakin' in the cash. Abetted, of course, by the powers that be with tax breaks out the wazoo.

[rkc3]

20. I think we're in agreement - see my post above.

[dweller]

17. yeah, bow down before our corporate masters!

i feel truly gracious for their benevolence to me.

dp

[IChing]

19. You are right, they know what's good for America and the American People

They allow me to drive :sarcasm:

[michaelwb]

28. Expenses

Come on it's not like politicans stay bought. It's an ongoing expense.

[Initech]

30. Isnt it weird that Halliburton isnt going to be asked to testify?

Wow, what are the odds on that one?

[NVMojo]

32. a ticker on CNN said Bush just shot this idea down ...surprise, suprise!

[madmark]

33. Oil companies should be free to make all the money they want:

All the Senators have to do is not give them pork in energy bills , or pay for the protection of their supplies (2 wars in the gulf). If Oil companies actually operated without all these government freebees, maybe their profits would be less and substitutes would emerge. Senators holding hearings on the subject of oil co profits are absurd. They need to holding hearings on themselves as to they continue to subsidize the oil industry.

[doc03]

34. I think it's interesting that gas has dropped to $2.19

just as the quarterly profit reports come out. And what's more interesting is how the American people will forget about the high prices and they will get away with it again. This has happened time and time again the prices go through the roof and all the politicians start mouthing off about it then they lower their prices until the heats off then we go through the whole thing over again in a few months. The American people have the attention span of a fruit fly!