yeah, but, $6 billion just can't buy wot it use to

[Guest guest]

Exxon's Big, Big, Big Bucks

Oil company posts record profits. Guess who helped.

 

by James Ridgeway

January 30th, 2006 4:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Exxon’s just-announced fourth-quarter earnings of a record

$10.7 billion--up from $8.4 billion in the year-ago quarter--is the latest sign

of the energy companies’ enormous rip-off.

Exxon's 2005 profit clocks in at $36.13 billion, up 42 percent from last year's.

 

The news comes after a year in which people struggled to meet rising prices at

the pump, which are now destined to go higher because of continuing unrest in

the Middle East. Even in the face of astounding price hikes in natural gas

(nearly doubling in some parts of the country), the Bush administration and

Congress are pushing up oil company profits at the expense of the consuming

public.

 

In the energy bill signed by Bush last year, " Congress and the White House

explicitly rejected efforts to improve fuel economy standards for our cars and

trucks (which account for 70 percent of our oil consumption) or adequately fund

fossil fuel alternatives, " writes Public Citizen, a nonprofit group in D.C. that

tracks energy prices.

 

Public Citizen calculates that the energy bill gives the oil companies $6

billion in tax breaks. Pumping money into political campaigns certainly seems to

pay off. Since 2001 the oil industry gave federal political candidates $52

million with 80 percent going to Republicans.

 

Company profits have been rising steadily along with the increased price of oil.

Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma offered excuses to raise prices further. Public

Citizen, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., that tracks energy prices,

reports the top five oil companies have racked up $254 in profits since Bush

became president.

 

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0605,ridgeway,71975,6.html

 

 

 

" Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England,

nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the

leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter

to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship,

or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ... Voice or no voice, the people

can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have

to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for

lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any

country. "

- General Herman Goering, President of German Reichstag & Nazi Party, Commander

of Luftwaffe