by Joan McCarter
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/25/970019/-Oil-company-earnings-skyrocket,-taxpayer-subsidies-continueVia ThinkPogress, the nation's five biggest oil companies—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell—are feeling no pain, despite the ongoing economic doldrums.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/25/big-oil-2010/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704071704576277523933629728.html Booming crude-oil prices and improved refining profits are poised to put a firecracker under Big Oil's first-quarter earnings and set the stage for a year that could come close to rivaling the industry's record year in 2008.
First-quarter crude prices averaged about $100 a barrel, or about 20% higher than a year ago, pushed upward by oil-supply concerns due to political unrest in the Arab World and a recovering global economy. That spike is expected to lift earnings by about 50% at Exxon Mobil Corp., and about 33% each at Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, compared with a year earlier.
Just as a reminder, last month the House GOP voted unanimously to protect taxpayer-funded subsidies to big oil. All of the belt tightening, you see, has to be done by Medicaid and Medicare recipients, not by those poor beleaguered oil company execs.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/01/951571/-House-GOP-votes-unanimously-to-protect-big-oil-subsidiesAs further reminder, this:
Remember that as you're shelling out $4/gallon.