Thursday, July 31, 2008

ExxonMobile: Profit King of the World!


Executives at ExxonMobile supremely weathered Americans cutting their driving 1.8% in April and 3.7% in May. They announced, yet again, record profits of $11.97 billion, up 17% from last year. A special charge related to the Supreme Court Exxon Valdez decision reduced their profit a mere $290 million for the quarter.

While the Bush administration bores in the American psyche to open up more areas for drilling, big oil continues raking in three year record profits.

Royal Dutch Shell put $11.56 billion in their tank, up 33% from a year ago

BP's second quarter profit soared 27% in 90 days, to almost $9.5 billion.

ConocoPhillips bottom line raced almost 31% from last quarter, to $5.44 billion

The most profitable company in the world, ExxonMobile, survived angry customers cutting back mileage (by some 40 billion). Clearly, customer satisfaction takes a back seat to profit and executive incentive compensation. It's called capitalism.

Angry customers are also upset voters. Will they watch politicians' current push for more giveaways to big oil? Three years ago, Congress and the White House provided $6 billion in subsidies via the 2005 Energy Bill. Pay attention, people. America, the ideal, is truly at risk.