Record Oil Profits Prompt Calls for Probe

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Hey, it's nice to hear that at least somebody is benefiting from hard times, am I right?

Oh, and btw, GO BILL FRIST!!!


http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...ice_probe.html

Record Oil Profits Prompt Calls for Probe

October 28, 2005 Record profits that major oil companies reported this week are prompting demands from politicians in both parties for an investigation into consumer gouging as gasoline prices spiked after the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

ExxonMobil Corp. reported $10 billion in net income in the third quarter, the largest ever by a U.S. energy company.

ExxonMobil's earnings announcement that profits rose 75 percent from last year followed a BP announcement of $6.5 billion in profits, up 34 percent and ConocoPhillips reporting its income grew to $3.8 billion, up 89 percent.

Shortly after the Exxon Mobil announcement, while he was standing on the floor of the New York Stock Exhange, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) called for congressional hearings and investigation into oil company profiteering.

"If there are those who abuse the free enterprise system to advantage themselves and their businesses at the expense of all Americans, they ought to be exposed, and they ought to be ashamed," Frist said.

Politicians are taking aim at big oil as public opinion surveys find consumers across the country up in arms about energy costs.

The petroleum industry is urging a cautious attitude in Congress amid all the accusations of price gouging.

An American Petroleum Institute analysis asserts that the massive increase in earnings simply reflects the size of the oil industry. API insists that oil industry earnings, when measured against sales, are in line with other industries' earnings the last five years.

[kahljorn]

I find the whole gas price rising from katrina thing to be stupid.

I think it was you, kev, who posted a news story a few months before the hurricane about how the oil places in new orleans were shut down because of a "hurricane that might hit" and this caused a jump in gas prices. Again, this was a few months before the hurricane even hit.
Such bullshit.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

It may have been me, I dunno.

Well, I can see gas prices rising due to damage taken by rigs in the Gulf. But yeah, aside from that, I agree with you. This is ridiculous.

State and national elected officials keep calling on oil companies to be "good corporate citizens," and to give like a week of gas amnesty. Good luck....

[ziggytrix]

we're back down to $2.25/gallon at the station I like to use.

[kahljorn]

That's good, i don't know what it is here, last i checked it was like 2.69.. maybe i can see the gas station prices from here... nope. too glary... anyway. The prices in this town are ridiculous because it's the highest oil producing(and one of the top agricultural) county in the nation. The reason it's so expensive here is because first they sell it to LA then we buy it back from them.
It all makes perfect sense, right? Our government is filled with worthless assholes who know nothing of "Economy" or any other science. They should be burned at the stake and never again allowed to speak their minds unless it's about bbqing. Whoever runs this city makes me want to kill them.
Did you know with produce first they send it to la to have it inspected then they send it back? Ridiculous. Inspectors have cars and it would probably be alot cheaper and alot more efficient to have them come up here to inspect the produce that fucking rots over time, and even if it's not cheaper you'd be wasting alot less food because it wouldn't be rotting.
I swear nobody uses their brains, and if they do it's to figure out how much their icecream bar will cost.