“You have to sense what you’re doing to us - we’re on the precipice here, about to fall into recession,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. “Does it trouble any one of you - the costs you’re imposing on families, on small businesses, on truckers?”
“We must work together to find a real solution,” said Lowe. “U.S. oil companies should be viewed not as scapegoats, but as assets.”
Before the hearing even began, a heckler in the crowd shouted: “Stop ripping off the American public - bring these oil prices down.”
“The people we represent are hurting, while your companies are profiting,” he said. “We need to get some balance.”
What exactly is a balance between profiting and “hurting”?
they’d be forced to enact extra profit taxes if Big Oil continued to post such large earnings.
They did make some assertion that laws in the US are not conducive to new oil production, although anemically stated. I wish they would have the courage to stand up for themselves, and tell these senators precisely what is wrong with what they are saying. It’s just depressing. I don’t imagine oil prices coming down anytime within the next 4 years.
I want to continue seeing oil prices go up. Let’s get to $5.00 a gallon, then $6.00 and $7.00. I can afford it. And then when the new Chevy Volts roll off the assembly line, I’ll be one of the first to buy one.
Taxes on gas are a bigger portion of the price than the oil companies profit. If said profit makes oil companies evil, what does it make those who ennact and collect the taxes? And let’s not even mention the outright idiocy in raising taxes on oil producers to bring prices down.
It’s things like these that make me wonder how many people even have intellectual ambitions (enough so to listen to logic), and how many of them have anti-conceptual mentalities (and thus are self-rendered unable to learn). I was speaking with my grandmother, when she mentioned how it’s “not right!” for oil companies to raise their prices this high, why it is that they *have* to raise their prices this high. At the end of my speaking turn she said “but it’s not right!”
I want to continue seeing oil prices go up. Let’s get to $5.00 a gallon, then $6.00 and $7.00. I can afford it.
I’ll pay you Tuesday for a tank today.
And let’s not even mention the outright idiocy in raising taxes on oil producers to bring prices down.
Do you think lawmakers will ever be so bold as to place a bar on how high oil companies can raise their prices? When lawmakers did this with health insurance companies, many left the markets with such laws.
For the record, the oil companies actually stood up for themselves a little bit, maybe not as much as I’d like to see, but it’s nice to see some back bone.
Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister said the following in response to the brain dead Senator Leahy.
HOFMEISTER: In the United States, access to our own oil and gas resources has been limited for the last 30 years, prohibiting companies such as Shell from exploring and developing resources for the benefit of the American people. It is not a free market. According to the Department of the Interior, 62% of all on-shore federal lands are off limits to oil and gas developments, with restrictions applying to 92% of all federal lands. The Argonne National Laboratory did a report in 2004 that identified 40 specific federal policy areas that halt, limit, delay, or restrict natural gas projects. The problem of access can be solved in this country by the same government that has prohibited it. Congress could have chose to lift some or all of the current restrictions on exploration and production of oil and gas. Congress could provide national policy to reverse the persistent decline of domestically secure natural resource development.
and
HOFMEISTER: There is simply no way to keep up – let alone get ahead of demand – except by producing more oil and building more refining capacity. That’s because of the makeup of the barrel of crude. Only a third to a half of a barrel of crude oil can be used to make these products. We can’t use more than half of a barrel of oil to make diesel and aviation fuel. To meet this demand we need more capacity. So we need policies that enable both more crude supply and more refining. Higher taxes would only serve to diminish the expansion capacity of this critical capital investment. I urge you on behalf of American consumers to resist such punitive policies.
That’s better than what we usually hear from CEOs in front of the Congress.
For the record, the oil companies actually stood up for themselves a little bit, maybe not as much as I’d like to see, but it’s nice to see some back bone.
Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister said the following in response to the brain dead Senator Leahy.
and
That’s better than what we usually hear from CEOs in front of the Congress.
Very nicely said. I didn’t read that, where did you find those quotes?
Very nicely said. I didn’t read that, where did you find those quotes?
They were on Rush Limbaugh’s website. Unfortunately, they won’t be available from there without a subscription, since he only makes them freely available for one day.
They were on Rush Limbaugh’s website. Unfortunately, they won’t be available from there without a subscription, since he only makes them freely available for one day.