Time for my annual rant. (Note that while I mention Exxon-Mobil a lot, other oil companies are also guilty. It's just that Exxon-Mobil is the poster boy for big-oil greed and extortion and, frankly, is basically just the scum of the earth, not to put too fine a point on it.)


It's that time of year again when we look at the record high prices we are paying for gasoline and heating fuel while the oil company bastards smugly report, once again, their record profits. The time of year when businesses look at higher fuel prices and realize they can no longer stay in business and begin laying off employees. The time of year when the elderly on a fixed income watch their fuel oil become a luxury that they can no longer afford while the states run out of assistance money and the President cuts heating assistance programs even more. The time of year when houses burn and people die because poor people have to resort to dangerous alternatives to over-priced heating oil.

No surprise then that Exxon-Mobil again beat their last year's record profits, which then were the largest profits ever earned by any company ever in history. This past year and quarter were even better, earning $40.6 billion last year and $11.7 billion in the fourth quarter.

Record prices and record profits. How is it that no one seems to be making a connection here? Hello??

Up here in Maine, heating oil is about a buck higher than the high price we paid a year ago. It probably is similarly higher in your neck of the woods. Gasoline is over 3 bucks a gallon here, up about 84 cents/gal from a year ago.

It's also the time of year when our President jumps to the defense of Exxon-Mobil and their right to squeeze every last cent from the people of our country no matter how damaging it is to our lives or economy.

I'd like to see the President, whose own just-released proposed US budget cuts weatherization programs and low-income energy assistance, to look into the eyes of the poor and elderly here in Maine who struggle to keep their families warm or worse, have to choose between food and fuel and hear him tell these folks that Exxon-Mobil deserves every penny they've squeezed from them and why it's to their benefit to give up their heat, their health or perhaps their lives to make Fat Cat bastards even fatter.

An interesting note is that Exxon-Mobil managed to extort record profits even though their total production was lower than the previous year because Venezuela kicked them out of the country. Perhaps it's time that Americans take a cue from Hugo Chavez and wake up to the fact that these extortionists no longer deserve to be in charge of our fuel supply, our economy and our lives and health. Perhaps nationalizing the oil companies in the US is an idea whose time has come? There are those who hate Chavez, who kicked Exxon-Mobil from Venezuala, because he called our President "The Devil" but for 235,000 poor families in 23 US states, the assistance he gives annually in the form of lower cost fuel oil as "humanitarian aid" is desperately needed. If the "Devil" is in the details, the details show that Exxon-Mobil and our President are not interested in assisting the needy. So who is the Devil, here?

If I sound mad, it's only because I am. I'm fortunate in that I have a good job and am healthy enough to be able to keep my home cool, but it totally pisses me off that while Exxon-Mobil gleefully drive the poor even deeper into poverty, Mainers are being asked to help their neighbors by checking on the poor and elderly to make sure they are warm enough, share wood or oil with them, bring them into their homes if necessary and to contribute money to charities and programs that provide the most minimum of heating assistance to the desperately poor. These are people that are being out-right robbed by Exxon-Mobil, whose very lives and health are at stake. It is as if Exxon-Mobil and its multi-millionaire Chairman, Rex W. Tillerson robbed our fuel tank at gunpoint, aided and abetted by our President knowing that decent people won't let their neighbors suffer even if the devils will.

Wayne

Woo-Hoo, Wayne!

I think the situation is about the same here in NY & I agree with you!

Hear hear! Well said, my friend!

Thought you might be interested… I went for the "follow the money" rule of thumb and looked up who owns the controlling shares of Exxon-Mobil.

http://greatreddragon.com/commentary/060921_WhoOwnsOil.htm

If you go to their main page http://greatreddragon.com and also check out who owns the controlling shares of the major banks, you will find overwhelming evidence that the investment group, "Barclays Global Investors UK Holdings Ltd" seems to now hold the lions' shares of all the major oil companies and the banks as well. I've been trying to find out who controls Barclays, but am afraid their corporate sites are predictably "veiled" in that respect.

Here is another site that shows who owns Exxon.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=XOM

I'd like to see the money trail to the long arm of the Republicans and Democrats in Congress and who's personally profiting. Don't forget to demonize all those folks investing in mutual funds for their kids college education. While I don't agree that the government should be in the oil business I agree 100% that oil companies are irresponsible in their civic duties, are gouging the American public and don't give one spit what you or I think. I'd like to see Hugo Chavez booted to the curb and ALL the rich fat cats in Congress get off some of their personal wealth acquired as a direct result of a long profitable "public service" career and pay the heating oil bills Chavez supports.

I'd also like an explanation why gas prices shoot up, slowly lower then fluctuate for no apparent reason! $2.66 on the way to work, $2.74 on the way home, $2.73 the next morning? No Gulf of Mexico hurricanes, no refinery explosions, no mid-East assassinations?

If elected I can fix this!! And a lot of other stuff!

Dirt (for King)

PS. Wasn't that nice of me to put the Republicans before the Democrats? No doubt in my mind that the Democrats are a little less greedy? (Insert cynical emoticon "HERE"!)

Or! We can just tax them so high that they'll move offshore, that'll get things fixed!

And another thing! I think ME and people like ME should be the ones helping the poor. I know people of moderate means who could help and wouldn't (don't) lift a finger to do so. There's the true tragedy (IMHO)!

Dirt

$2.79 on the way home tonight. Grrrrrr!

Dirt

And the fuel for my diesel truck is up to $3.59. Double Grrrrrr!

Up another dime today, $2.89 on the way home.

Dirt

$2.84 for 2 days and $2.94 on the way home today.

Dirt

It was $3.17 a gallon to fill up today. And what about the gas tax windfall in those states where the tax is tied to the amount paid and not to the number of gallons. If the tax is 15 cents per gallon it stays the same, no matter how high the price of gas, but if it is 15 cents per dollar, then the higher the price, the more tax is paid.

Just bringing this up again...

I just paid $3.31/gal tonight. It was $3.36 at the same place last week.

How's everyone else's prices now?

Yesterday's fill-up was 3.45 and today it was up, so I saved about ninety cents...

The lady that owns the convenience store I stop for coffee at every morning said she was selling gasoline for 3/10 of a cent per gallon more than she paid for it and the supplier told her to expect to post prices over $4.00 per gallon.

Of course, that is not an Exxon Mobil station. They are up the road a bit and I won't set foot in there as a matter of principal.

Wayne

I think that is pretty much how it is for most places that sell gas. The owner of one of the local places here told DH that they make more money selling a bottle of water than they do off of selling gas.

I have to say I am one of the lucky ones here. I am a stay at home housewife and my kids ride the bus to school each day. My husband works from home also. So as far as gas prices , it is a concern, but it is not a huge budget breaker for us. I truly feel for people who have to commute to work each day, the prices are ridiculous, esspecially if your earning the minimum wage. I really don't know how people are going to survive in this economy. It seems like a pressure cooker that could blow it's lid at any moment.