looting is bad when yer poor..good when yer an oil company....

[Guest guest]

Big oil's big time looting

 

By Derrick Z. Jackson

<http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/02/big\

_oils_bigtime_looting/>

September 2, 2005

 

President Bush yesterday told ABC-TV, " there ought to be

zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an

emergency such as this, whether it be looting or price-

gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of

charitable giving or insurance fraud. "

 

Zero tolerance is meaningless when the White House lets

the biggest looters of Hurricane Katrina walk off with

billions of dollars.

 

We are not referring to the people you currently see in

endless footage, crashing through storefronts and wading

through chest-high water with clothes, food, and

pharmaceuticals. Some folks are disgusting in their

thuggishness, but a great many others are simply

desperate, having now gone three days without food or

water. The latter are living out one of the most famous

hypothetical problems in moral reasoning -- should a

husband steal a cancer drug he cannot afford for his

dying wife?

 

No such sympathy is to be extended to big oil. The

nation has on its hands a disaster so profound that we

have not even begun to seriously count the bodies in the

floodwaters. It brings us as close as we may get in our

lifetime to places like Bangladesh.

 

New Orleans is under martial law and will not return to

normal for years. Members of the Red Cross, the Coast

Guard, the National Guard, police agencies, and

firefighters are sacrificing time and risking lives to

save lives. Texas is opening up its school systems for

homeless Louisiana children. Generous food wholesalers

are giving away their stocks to passersby. The Astrodome

is taking in the refugees of the Superdome.

 

In the midst of this charity, big oil looted the nation.

The pumps instantly shot past $3 a gallon, with $4 a

gallon well in sight.

 

In a thinly disguised attempt to act as if it cared

about the people wading in the water, Chevron has

pledged $5 million to relief efforts. ExxonMobil and

Shell have pledged $2 million apiece. British Petroleum

and Citgo have pledged $1 million each.

 

This is nothing next to their wealth. Of the world's

seven most profitable corporations, four are ExxonMobil,

Royal Dutch Shell, BP, and Chevron. ExxonMobil is the

world's most profitable company, making $25.3 billion

last year. It and the other three corporations had

combined profits last year of $72.8 billion. ExxonMobil

is also the world's most valuable company, with a market

value, according to Forbes magazine, of $405 billion.

The combined market value of ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch

Shell, and Chevron is nearly $1 trillion.

 

And that was last year. A month ago, ExxonMobil,

Chevron, and ConocoPhillips announced record second-

quarter profits of $7.6 billion, $3.7 billion, and $3.1

billion, respectively. Royal Dutch Shell's quarterly

profits of $5.2 billion were up by 34 percent over the

same period last year. Other well-known companies like

Sunoco also had record second-quarter earnings.

 

If ExxonMobil were to maintain its current pace of

profits, it would cross the $30 billion barrier for

2005. The company's chief financial officer, Henry

Hubble, bragged in classic corporatese, " Our disciplined

project management and operating practices deliver the

benefits of strong industry conditions to our

shareholders. "

 

Those disciplined operating practices are hardly

confined to the oil fields. Everyone knows that Bush

does not really mean what he says about price-gouging at

the pump, since he just gave energy companies the bulk

of $14.5 billion in tax breaks in the new energy bill.

Surprise, surprise. In Bush's two elections, oil and gas

companies gave Republicans 79 percent of their $61.5

million in campaign contributions, according to the

Center for Responsive Politics.

 

If Bush really meant what he said, he would call for a

freeze or cap on gasoline prices, especially in the

regions affected most dramatically by Katrina. He would

challenge big oil to come up with a much more meaningful

contribution to relief efforts.

 

Insurance companies are expecting up to $25 billion in

claims from Katrina. For ExxonMobil, which is headed to

$30 billion in profits, to jack up prices at the pump

and then only throw $2 million at relief efforts is

unconscionable.

 

Stay fixated, if you wish, on the thieves and desperate

families who are so much easier to catch on camera than

comptrollers electronically stealing your cash. It is

not pleasant to see anyone loot a store. But ExxonMobil

and big oil are looting the nation, and no one declaring

martial law on them.

 

War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.