Thursday, April 28, 2005

Oil Industry Worried It Has Too Much Cash

"Technology is the ticket," said Bush, calling today's tight energy markets "a problem that has been years in the making" and will take time to resolve.

As Chris at AMERICAblog says: First off, this is a president who came from the oil business so if this is the reason (and that is an "if") why the hell is he only raising it now that middle class families as well as US businesses are feeling the pain? Shouldn't he have made this an issue back in 2000 if this was such a burning issue? Second, if the industry is such a mess, why are the petroleum companies showing record profits right now if it's all such a mess? They don't really seem to be suffering much now, do they?

Now, take a look at this little article in Fortune Magazine that says: Exxon's "soon-to-retire CEO suddenly has a new anxiety: how to spend the windfall wrought by $55-a-barrel oil. By the end of April, Exxon will have a cash hoard of more than $ 25 billion. And if crude prices stay where they are, this geometrically growing bonanza could soon give Exxon more cash on hand than any other U.S. company...the cash is building at a remarkable rate. Each dollar jump in the price of a barrel of oil adds another half billion in earnings. Based on current prices, Exxon is accumulating more than $1 billion a month - even after allocating for dividends, share repurchases, and capital spending. If oil simply stays where it is now, Exxon's cash could approach $40 billion in 12 months. By then [Exxon's CEO] is expected to have handed off the top job--and the headache of what to do with all that cash."

David Sirota has this to say: Let me repeat that: Exxon and the oil industry have gouged Americans so much, that they now say they have a problem because they have too much cash. Yet, President Bush has yet to mention a single word about industry price gouging. That's what oil industry money buys more than anything: White House complicity when companies shamelessly rip off average citizens.

Where are the angry Americans?

3 comments:

Bob said...

The White House calls Democrats the "do nothing party" on Social Security, & wants cooperation & even compromise. Bizarre, because on just about every other issue the White House couldn't give a shit what the Democrats say & do. I hope Bush goes on TV just long enough tonight to baffle the audience but not long enough to delay (a pun?) the new episode of E.R. more than 1/2 an hour.

Carrie said...

He's droning on. The best he can come up with is "we're making progress."

Anonymous said...

"Where are the angry Americans?"

The angry Americans are all watching Faux News and getting angry about the wrong things. They are the most factually-abused people on earth and can no longer comprehend the problem they face. They have been lied to, misinformed, denied complete information, and fed a steady diet of propaganda and Republican talking points dressed up as news and commentary.

They have come to believe the 'bullocks' and they can no longer figure it out.