Gas Prices (and Exxon’s Profits) are High; Hillary has Something to Say About that
By Deb Cupples on May 3, 2008 at 2:46 PM in Barack Obama, Gas Prices, Hillary Clinton, John McCain
Today, I bought gas in North Florida: $3.79 a gallon for regular, up about 83 cents since early February. Friday, Exxon Mobil reported quarterly profits of $10.9 billion. Last quarter, Exxon listed the highest quarterly profits in U.S. corporate history ($11.66 billion), as well as record-high annual profits of $40.66 billion in 2007.
Exxon’s share prices fell anyway, because analysts had expected even better performance.
While it’s nice to know that we consumers are helping pay for record-high oil company profits again, that’s not all we’re helping pay for.
Profits are calculated after expenses are accounted for. Expenses include executive compensation packages. Some big oil execs pocket tens (or even hundreds) of millions of shareholder dollars in salaries and perks — courtesy, in part, of us consumers.
In 2006, for example, Exxon’s ex-CEO Lee Raymond got a $400 million retirement package.
While individuals employed as Exxon Mobil executives have been hyper-generous to themselves, they’ve been expert penny pinchers toward us consumers and taxpayers.
By 2001, for example, 15 oil companies (including Exxon and Mobil) settled Justice Department lawsuits for a combined $438 million after they allegedly failed to pay us taxpayers the royalties they owed on oil extracted from U.S. government-owned (i.e., taxpayer-owned) lands. They may have actually owed us more than the settlement amount.
Last year, a Department of Interior official resigned after media reports showed that she had failed to enforce oil companies’ obligations to pay royalties to us taxpayers. Apparently, collecting royalties has not been a big priority for Bush Administration officials.
Sen. Hillary Clinton has something to say about the gas-price situation:
"There is something seriously wrong with our economy when Exxon’s record $11 billion in quarterly profits are seen as a disappointment by Wall Street. This is truly Dick Cheney’s wonderland.
"But on Main Street, middle class families are facing devastating choices every day between buying groceries and filling up their gas tanks to get to work. They are being squeezed by a vice grip of record high gas prices, record declines in housing values and an economy that is shedding jobs and tumbling into recession.
"I believe these families need immediate relief. That’s why I have called for making Exxon and other oil companies with record profits pay the federal gas tax this summer. Now, Senator Obama doesn’t believe in any kind of gas tax holiday. And Senator McCain doesn’t want to pay for one. I believe we should impose a windfall profits tax on big oil companies and use that money to suspend the gas tax and give families relief at the pump. They typical family could get $70 in relief, and families that drive more for work could get even more. Truckers will get a $50 break every time they fill up their tanks.
"At the same time, we need to set a new course for our long term energy strategy, and move away from oil and towards new sources of clean energy. That’s why I have proposed a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund that will invest that money in clean energy sources like wind and solar."
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Cross-posted from my blog, Buck Naked Politics.






















