Posted on 05/13/2011 4:11:11 PM PDT by Kaslin
Energy: As the House passes a bill to open up offshore drilling, the Senate holds another show trial of oil executives showing why people blame them, not the administration, for high gas prices. Last week they fought back.
Summoned for what Sen. Orrin Hatch labeled a dog-and-pony show, executives of Exxon Mobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, BP America and Chevron appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday and, in often-heated exchanges, indicated their days as whipping boys are over.
The hearing was called ostensibly to support the Democrats' Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act, a bill with no chance of passage. Its purpose was to once again deflect blame for rising gas prices caused in large part by the Obama administration's ban on increasing domestic supply of fossil fuels.
Shell Oil President Marvin Odum laid the blame for high gas prices at the administration's feet, where it belongs. The moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico and continued restrictions, he said, will cause Shell "to lose an estimated 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2011 alone" and "that could have powered, on average, 633,000 cars and light trucks every day since Jan. 1."
Odum noted that Shell has invested more than $3.5 billion to develop energy resources just in Alaska, yet has not been granted a single permit to drill the vast resources in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The company isn't sitting on its profits, he made clear. In the past six years Shell has drilled more than 400 exploratory wells worldwide but hasn't been allowed to do so here.
Nor are oil companies evading taxes, as they reinvest their "record" profits in new technologies to find more oil in increasingly inaccessible places to bring us gasoline that's still cheaper than bottled water.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I didn’t watch this little show trial on C-SPAN, but I’m pleased with how the oil execs stood up for themselves. I think they made the case that Congress is the problem, and I note as evidence the complete VACUUM of reportage on this issue wrt whether or not the admin will “do something”.
This whole thing is so jerked off. Nobody likes paying big bucks for their gas, but the oil companies have almost NO control over the pricing for their product, believe it or not. They pay gobs of money in taxes and the sales of their products furnishes loads of money to Fed and state tax coffers. In fact, the government makes MULTIPLES of the money the oil companies make on every gallon fuel. And the gov’t doesn’t have to explore, drill, transport, refine, nor test the stuff. Exxon et al make 6 or 7 cents from every gallon. In fuel excise taxes, the Feds make at least 18 cents a gallon, the state makes 8-10% of the final sale price per gallon just on sales taxes and many states have fuel taxes over and above that. But it’s never enough in this giant envy-stoking, demonizing game the Dems play.
This whole stupid thing about Exxon making $10.9 billion last quarter. That’s $35 in net net profit from every US citizen. Let’s add in all the other major producers. What’s that, $75? $100? Do we get $100 of benefit from having gas to put in our cars over 3 months?
I didn’t watch this little show trial on C-SPAN, but I’m pleased with how the oil execs stood up for themselves. I think they made the case that Congress is the problem, and I note as evidence the complete VACUUM of reportage on this issue wrt whether or not the admin will “do something”.
This whole thing is so jerked off. Nobody likes paying big bucks for their gas, but the oil companies have almost NO control over the pricing for their product, believe it or not. They pay gobs of money in taxes and the sales of their products furnishes loads of money to Fed and state tax coffers. In fact, the government makes MULTIPLES of the money the oil companies make on every gallon fuel. And the gov’t doesn’t have to explore, drill, transport, refine, nor test the stuff. Exxon et al make 6 or 7 cents from every gallon. In fuel excise taxes, the Feds make at least 18 cents a gallon, the state makes 8-10% of the final sale price per gallon just on sales taxes and many states have fuel taxes over and above that. But it’s never enough in this giant envy-stoking, demonizing game the Dems play.
This whole stupid thing about Exxon making $10.9 billion last quarter. That’s $35 in net net profit from every US citizen. Let’s add in all the other major producers. What’s that, $75? $100? Do we get $100 of benefit from having gas to put in our cars over 3 months?
Energy Ping
When the oil companies get a dime profit and the government gets a dollar profit in taxes; I wonder who is at fault.
Suggested line of questioning:
GOP Senator: Mr. Odom, are you aware that the Obama adminstration has made billions of dollars available to the Brasilian oil company, Petrobras?
Mr. Odom (Shell Oil): Yes, Senator.
Senator: And is Petrobras, the oil company receiving monies thanks to this administration, the oil company that is more heavily involved in deep ocean drilling than any other company in the Western Hemisphere?
Odom: Yes, Senator.
Senator: What is the depth of wells being drilled off the coast of Brazil?
Odom: Something in the area of 7,000 to 9,000 feet, I believe.
Senator: Is that accurate Mr. Mulva? Mr. Mulva (Conoco Phillips): Yes, sir, and even deeper.
Senator: So while we restrict drilling in 5,000 feet of water in US waters, we are aiding a foreign country to drill much deeper in their waters, Mr. Mulva?
Mr. Mulva: That would be correct.
Senator: Mr. Odom, are the US regulations regarding safety and environment more or less strict than those of Brazil?
Mr. Odom: The US is significantly more restrictive.
Senator: You say more restrictive?
Mr. Odom: Oh yes, definitely.
Senator: So if one were thinking, as they say "globally" about the environment of planet earth, Mr. Odom?
Odom: It would be better to drill in the Gulf, in Us waters.
Senator: Mr. Mulva, are you familiar with Mr. George Soros, and his he a big investor in Petrobras?
Mulva: He has been in the past, something like $800 million.
Senator: And would it be to his advantage to, let us say, influence a politician or a set of politicians to find a way to send billions of dollars to Petrobras, to help them with their new deep ocean fields?
Mulva: Yes, I suppose so.
Senator: And if this investorcould find a way to militate against US production, reducing it, while simultaneously getting the US to get funds to Petrobras, it would be quite a coup for that investor, wouldn't it?
Mulva: It would seem that way, sir.
Senator: He's have it coming and going, right? Restricting the over-all supply while increasing market share for his own company. Would that be fair trade?
Mulva: It would appear not.
I recall a similar scenario circa the Carter years when the LE’s “vehicle environmental pogroms” hit the wall of technical reality. There have been several reprises since.
Congress gets its “face time” appearing to be “doing something”, when, in fact, they’re the root cause....
For anyone still swallowing the kool-aid......Oil companies don’t get “subsidies”. What they, like any other company, “get” is tax offsets. In the case of oil exploration they’re large because the costs are high and the returns are marginal. To put it on a personal level, how many of you would push $100 dollars under the racetrack window to have a chance to earn $10 ? But that’s the oil business.
Now the Obama Administration proposes to eliminate/curtail this so-called “subsidy”........How long until the shortage of domestic oil results in our being completely dependent upon offshore supplies ? That’s the goal of Obama’s “Energy Czar, Chu, who’s on record as wanting U.S. energy costs to equal those in Europe. You could lose all of Europe inside the U.S. !! Nor does the U.S. have the alternative transport infrastructure that’s existed in Europe for over a century..... >PS
Yes, (The Republican) Congress IS the problem. If we are ever to bring down high oil prices, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, (The Republican) Congress must act swiftly and boldly to REPEAL this Welfare For Big Oil; and RAISE the Federal Gasoline Tax by AT LEAST $0.50--a DOLLAR would be better--per gallon! /Pelosi-Reid Mode
Admit it. You just love saying, ‘Mulva’.
"The CEOs from the five major oil companies -- which together booked $36 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2011 alone -- went to the Senate on Thursday to try to justify the $4 billion in tax giveaways they're receiving this year."
You see, I know that for every dollar of profit, oil companies have paid about three dollars of tax. I also know that for the fourth quarter of 2010, Exxon-Mobil made a profit of about 2 cents on every gallon of gasoline sold, whereas the federal and state governments made over 50 cents "windfall profit" per gallon through taxes for doing absolutely nothing in locating, drilling, refining, and delivering the gas.
I also know that most of those "tax giveaways" go to small, independent oil companies, not the big corporations. I know that eliminating long standing tax deductions (the things you guys mislabel as "giveaways") will help big oil by eliminating competition. Hmm, which big oil company gave Barry Obama 20 billion to use for something that still hasn't happened? What is Barry planning to do with the loot? I know that Barry's favorite "green" technologies have received far more subsidies than the oil industry and they produce and will produce almost nothing of America's energy. So, in dollars spent for unit of energy gained, wind, solar, ethanol, and geothermal are among the biggest wasters of taxpayer money in the history of energy.
Something happened.
It's people in the millions seeing the ruin that Barry's Soros-directed policies have made of a strong and prosperous nation and determining that they're not going to be fooled again.
Something is happening.
It's the last grains of sand in the hourglass rapidly draining away. Get ready to find private sector employment.
Excellent!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.