Slick

There’s a Senate hearing going on in Washington where oil company executives are defending their companies’ profits. Exxon Mobil alone earned almost $10 billion in the 3rd quarter. Combine that with the four other oil companies at the hearing, they earned more than $25 billion in the last quarter. Senators asked Lee Raymond, Exxon Mobil’s chairman why the company raised their wholesale gas prices by 24 cents a gallon in 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina and he replied he couldn’t confirm the price increase but that the company issued a directive “to minimize the increase in price while at the same time recognizing if we kept the price too low we would quickly run out (of fuel) at the service stations.” He says it’s not price gouging but a “tough balancing act.” The execs go on to say that their profit margins are minimal, suggesting that the government is to blame because of restrictive policies, and that the $14 billion in tax breaks and incentives in the energy law Congress passed this year won’t change a thing. Blah, blah, blah. Keep in mind that the executives are NOT under oath at this hearing. Curious, very curious.