| By H. JOSEF HEBERT
(AP) Christy Ridenour fuels her car while watching the television placed atop a gas pump at the BP Gas... Google sponsored links Oil Energy's Ugly Truth - The Last Domino Is About To Fall. New Oil Forecast & Investor Report. 2nd Oil Sands Boom Begins - Canada: 7 Times More Oil Than Saudi Arabia. Two Free Stock Picks. WASHINGTON (AP) - Top executives of the five biggest U.S. oil companies were pressed Tuesday to explain the soaring fuel prices amid huge industry profits and why they weren't investing more to develop renewable energy source such as wind and solar. The executives, peppered with questions from skeptical lawmakers, said they understood that high energy costs are hurting consumers, but deflected blame, arguing that their profits - $123 billion last year - were in line with other industries. "On April Fool's Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil," Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said as his committee began hearing from the oil company executives. With motorists paying a national average of $3.29 a gallon at the pump and global oil prices remaining above $100 a barrel, the executives were hard pressed by lawmakers to defend their profits. "The anger level is rising significantly," said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., relating what he had heard in his district during the recent two-week congressional recess. Alluding to the fact that congressmen often don't rate very high in opinion polls, Cleaver told the executives: "Your approval rating is lower than ours and that means your down low." "I heard what you are hearing. Americans are very worried about the rising price of energy," said John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., echoing remarks by the other four executives from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), BP America Inc., Chevron Corp. (CVX), and ConocoPhillips. But the executives rejected claims that their companies' earnings are out of step with other industries and said that while they earn tens of billions of dollars, they also invest tens of billions in exploration and oil production activities. "Our earnings, though high in absolute terms, need to be viewed in the context of the scale and cyclical, long-term nature of our industry as well as the huge investment requirements," said J.S. Simon, Exxon Mobil's senior vice president. But Markey asked Simon why Exxon Mobil hasn't followed the other companies in investing in alternative energy. The four other companies reported spending as much as $3.5 billion in recent years on solar, wind, biodiesel and other renewable projects. "Why is Exxon Mobil resisting the renewable revolution," asked Markey. Simon said his company, which earned $40 billion last year, had provided $100 million on research into climate change at Stanford University, but that current alternative energy technologies "just do not have an appreciable impact" in addressing "the challenge we're trying to meet." Executives from the largest U.S oil companies have been frequent targets of lawmakers, frustrated at not being able to do much to counter soaring oil and gasoline costs. In November, 2005, Hofmeister and the top executives of the same companies represented Tuesday sat in a Senate hearing room to explain high prices and their huge profits. The prices are of concern, Hofmeister said at the time, adding a note of optimism: "Our industry is extremely cyclical and what goes up almost always comes down," he told the skeptical senators on a day when oil cost $60 a barrel. About six months later, when the cost of the same barrel reached $75, the executives were grilled again on Capitol Hill on their spending and investment priorities. Recently oil prices reached a peak of $111 a barrel. While declining a bit in recent days, the price remains above $100 and there's talk of $4 a gallon gasoline in the coming months. Markey challenged the executives to pledge to invest 10 percent of their profits to develop renewable energy and give up $18 billion in tax breaks over 10 years so money could be funneled to support other energy and conservation. The executives said the companies already are spending billions of dollars - more than $3.5 billion over the last five years - on renewable fuels such as wind energy and biodiesel, but rejected any tax increases. "Imposing punitive taxes on American energy companies, which already pay record taxes, will discourage the sustained investment needed to continue safeguarding U.S. energy security," Simon insisted. "These companies are defending billions of federal subsidies ... while reaping over a hundred billion dollars in profits in just the last year alone," complained Markey, chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. The House last year and again on Feb. 27 approved legislation that would have ended the tax breaks for the oil giants, while using the revenue to support wind, solar and other renewable fuels and incentives for energy conservation. The measure has not passed the Senate. | What a bunch of CRAP! Yes, we all hate the $3.50 per gallon price. I drive a big old SUV myself, and it is PAINFUL to fill up the tank! BUT LETS PUT SOME THIGNS IN CONTEXT! First, this is America. We are a capitalistic society. So those democrats that want to practice MARXISM by taking from the rich and redistributing the wealth to the needy, NEED TO HOP THE NEXT JET TO STALINGRAAD! Second, the $123 BILLION is a relative number based on NET PROFIT which is a PERCENTAGE OF THEIR SALES. By the equation these DEMOCRATIC SENATORS are applying, WALMART is more profitable than EXXON! Yes, EXXON's NET PROFIT was 9% of its sales. Walmart's NET PROFIT in their last fiscal year was 23%! SO WHY ARE THE OIL COMPANIES BEING SINGLED OUT? Oil is a trillion dollar industry for these companies. Their sales numbers are higher. And, the DEMOCRATS want to confuse the public by making the sheeple think that the oil companies are gouging the consumer! HORSE PUCKY! And Obama wants to take "Windfall Profits" away from the OIL COMPANIES! OBAMA IS A MARXIST COMMUNIST! From each according to their means to each according to their needs -- the definition of MARXISM! Clinton is no better! SO how about these senators get to the real issues. Like, dropping all of the freaking restrictions on the OIL companies from drilling in the USA instead of worrying about the damn caribou in Alaska! Then, we wont have to pay $100 a barrel for oil and continue to line the pockets of the Saudi princes! Jesus...doesn't anyone get it? We have more oil under our country than any other deposit anywhere in the globe. But the environmentalists are the people causing the price of Gasoline to sore -- Not the oil companies! This is what's wrong with America! |
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Congress Presses Oil Execs on High Prices
Truckers Strike
| TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Independent truckers around the country pulled their rigs off the road and others slowed to a crawl on major highways in a loosely organized protest of high fuel prices. Some truckers, on CB radios and trucking Web sites, had called for a strike Tuesday to protest the high cost of diesel fuel, saying the action might pressure President Bush to stabilize prices by using the nation's oil reserves. But the protests were scattered because because major trucking companies were not on board and there did not appear to be any central coordination. On New Jersey's Turnpike, southbound rigs "as far as the eye can see" were moving at about 20 mph near Newark, said Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando. Other truckers had gathered at a service area near Newark chanting and protesting. Outside Chicago, three truck drivers were ticketed for impeding traffic on Interstate 55, driving three abreast at low speeds, said Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Luis Gutierrez. Near Florida's Port of Tampa, more than 50 tractor-trailer rigs sat idle as their drivers demanded that contractors pay them more to cover their fuel and other costs. "We can no longer haul their stuff for what they're paying," said David Santiago, 35, a trucker for the past 17 years. Santiago, like many of the more than 50 truckers gathered on a side street near the Port of Tampa, said he can't support his family on what he makes. "If it wasn't for my wife, we would have been bankrupt already," he said. "The oil company is the boss, what are we going to be able to do about it?" said Charles Rotenbarger, 49, a trucker from Columbus, Ohio, who was at a truck stop at Baldwin, Fla., about 20 miles west of Jacksonville. "The whole world economy is going to be controlled by the oil companies. There's nothing we can do about it." Jimmy Lowry, 51, of St. Petersburg, Fla., and others said it costs about $1 a mile to drive one of the big rigs, although some companies are offering as little as 87 cents a mile. Diesel cost $4.03 a gallon at the Jacksonville-area truck stop. Teamsters union officials said they had nothing to do with any kind of protests. An independent truck drivers group, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said it also was not organizing anything. Federal law prohibits the association from calling for a strike because it is a trade association. In Washington, meanwhile, top executives of the five biggest U.S. oil companies said Tuesday they know high fuel prices are hurting consumers but deflected any blame and argued their profits—$123 billion last year—were in line with other industries. Rather than joining the protests, some truckers were forced to sit idle because of shippers' fears of a possible strike. In western Michigan, independent trucker William Gentry had been scheduled to pick up a load and take it to Boston, but his dispatcher told him there was a change of plans. "She told me that her shipper was shutting down," fearing that someone would sabotage deliveries if their drivers worked during the protest, Gentry said at the Tulip City Truck Stop outside Holland, Mich. He and Bob Sizemore, 55, a 30-year veteran trucker, decided to return to their homes in Ohio, 280-mile trips that would cost each one about $200 of their own money for fuel alone. "We can't ride around here looking for freight," said Gentry, 47, a driver for 23 years. If something isn't done about fuel prices, the cost of consumer goods will shoot up, Gentry said. "People aren't seeing that the more we pay, the more they're going to pay," he said. | On one hand, do you blame them? Its the independent truck drivers -- the owner operators, who are feeling the pain. But, the solution to the problem is this. RAISE YOUR PRICES!!!! You are NOT going to lose business because the competition has to raise their prices as well! You don't think for a second that the large trucking firms don't adjust their prices on a daily basis, do you? So the owner operators need to get with the program, and instead of striking and pissing off your customer's or your contractor, get the product delivered and raise your prices accordingly. Duh! |