As Fuel Prices Rise, Congress Questions Oil Profits

WASHINGTON — Don’t blame us, oil industry chiefs told a skeptical Congress.Top executives of the country’s five biggest oil companies said yesterday they know record fuel prices are hurting people, but they argued it’s not their fault and said their huge profits are in line with other industries.Appearing before a House committee, the executives were pressed to explain why they should continue to get billions of dollars in tax breaks when they made $123 billion last year and motorists are paying record gasoline prices at the pump.“On April Fool’s Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil,” Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said, aiming his remarks at the five executives sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a congressional hearing room.“Our earnings, although high in absolute terms, need to be viewed in the context of the scale and cyclical, long-term nature of our industry as well as the huge investment requirements,” the senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., which made a record $40 billion last year, J.S. Simon, said. “We depend on high earnings during the up cycle to sustain … investment over the long-term, including the down cycles,” he said.The up cycle has been going on too long, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, suggested. “The anger level is rising significantly.”Alluding to the fact that Congress often doesn’t rate very high in opinion polls, Mr. Cleaver told the executives: “Your approval rating is lower than ours, and that means you’re down low.”Several lawmakers noted the rising price of gasoline at the pump, now averaging $3.29 a gallon amid talk of $4 a gallon this summer.“I heard what you are hearing. Americans are very worried about the rising price of energy,” the president of Shell Oil Co., John Hofmeister, said, echoing remarks by the other four executives including representatives of BP America Inc., Chevron Corp., and ConocoPhillips.While Democrats hammered the executives for their profits and demanded they do more to develop alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and biofuels, Republican lawmakers called for opening more areas for drilling to boost domestic production of oil and gas.What would bring lower prices? asked Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the committee’s ranking Republican.“We need access to all kinds of energy supply,” the chairman of BP America, Robert Malone, replied, adding that 85% of the country’s coastal waters are off limits to drilling.But Mr. Markey wanted to know why the companies aren’t investing more in energy projects other than oil and gas — or giving up some tax breaks so the money could be directed to promote renewable fuels and conservation and take pressure off oil and gas supplies.“Why is Exxon Mobil resisting the renewable revolution,” Mr. Markey asked, noting that the other four companies together have invested $3.5 billion in solar, wind and biodiesel projects.Exxon is spending $100 million on research into climate change at Stanford University, Mr. Simon replied, but current alternative energy technologies “just do not have an appreciable impact” in addressing “the challenge we’re trying to meet.”The appearance yesterday before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming was not the first time that oil executives had faced the harsh words of a lawmakers frustrated over their inability to do anything about soaring oil and gasoline costs.

As Fuel Prices Rise, Congress Questions Oil Profits

As Fuel Prices Rise, Congress Questions Oil Profits

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