Replies

Doesn't R&D and capital investments (maintaining current equipment, new drilling, new exploration) get deducted from Exxon's revenue prior to the declaration of profits?

As for the rest of the $8 billion, maybe you didn't notice that this was in reference to just a single fiscal quarter... not a year's worth of profit. And that is already subtracting a potential $2 billion for a hypothetical refinery. Solely one quarter (3 months).

Exxon is making roughly $10 billion a quarter, yet can't afford to build a refinery? That the cost isn't worth the investment?

That is probably so, thanks to the enviro-wacko's. So if any company wants to change the rules, their going to have to play the same game... lobbying.

And $8 billion is far more than anything the enviro-wacko crowd can pony up.

And that's just the way of the world right now. It would be nice to change that, but right now refineries are more important.

Yet you think that lobbying is a Democratic Party concept... I'm sure that you believe that. But then, some people believe that Neil Armstrong never landed on the moon, too.

Doesn't R&D and capital investments (maintaining current equipment, new drilling, new exploration) get deducted from Exxon's revenue prior to the declaration of profits?

Where do they get the money for that investment for the next quarter?