[G.Mason]

" ... By the way, which terrorists are you referring to? The ones in the Middle East and Venezuela or the ExxonMobil leadership?"

Are you aware that "the ExxonMobil leadership" does not set the price of the oil they purchase?

[BW2221]

No, but they give $400 million retirement parachutes. That's the equivalent of giving him the Atlanta Braves franchise ($424 million value) just for retiring. What other "perks" do you think we pay for?

Let's face facts. With the government-approved mergers of big oil companies, competition is dead. The oil companies are no different than the federal government. One raises taxes. The other raises prices.

[Rte66]

What? You mean John D. Rockefeller isn't still sitting up there on the sunny side of the street, rolling dice and looking for boxcars to make it an even $12 per gallon of gasoline?

[gogogodzilla]

ExxonMobil, however, DOES control the company's oil refining capacity.

And it could build coal-to-oil refineries... totally eliminating all payouts to hostile, oil-rich nations.

But it doesn't.

Hmmm.