More oil-company earnings figures out today — the latest from Shell and Exxon.
Exxon reported a whopping $10.7 billion in profits, an increase of 41% from the same period last year. Overall, Exxon has earned over $20 billion in profits in just the first six months of the year. Not surprisingly, ExxonMobil is also one of the most politically engaged of the top five oil companies. A few key facts:
- Exxon is the top oil and gas contributor in 2011, giving over $384,000 already this year, with 95 percent of the contributions going to Republicans.
- Exxon has spent over $3 million on lobbying this year and has increased their lobbying expenditures by at least 25 percent from the first quarter to the second.
- ExxonMobil spent $5.7 billion—more than half of its first-quarter profit—to buy 69 million shares of stock in order to “reduce shares outstanding.”
- Despite ranking in the top of the Fortune 500 list of company profits, ExxonMobil, along with other oil companies, continues to receive billions of dollars in tax breaks paid for by taxpayers.
- Exxon pays a lower effective tax rate than the average American. In the years spanning 2008 to 2010, Exxon paid an effective rate of 17.6 percent, nearly 16 percent below the average individual federal tax rate.
- ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson ranked in as one of the highest paid CEOs in 2010, earning over $21 million in direct compensation.
ExxonMobil is also well known for giving millions of dollars to climate deniers and industry front groups with the goal of creating doubt about global warming, attacking the integrity of climate science and scientists, and promoting a pro-corporate polluter agenda.
Royal Dutch Shell announced their 2011 second-quarter earnings, reporting profits of $8 billion, a 77% jump from the same period a year ago, bringing their total profits in the first six months of 2011 to $14.9 billion. Below is a quick look at Shell by the numbers:
- Shell has spent nearly $4 million on lobbying in 2011, making it one of the Top 20 Spenders of 2011, and the second biggest spender of the oil and gas industry.
- The oil and gas industry ranks as the fourth largest spender on lobbying in 2011, spending a combined total of nearly $40 million.
- The Big five oil companies, BP, Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell, made more than $900 billion in profits (figure in 2011 dollars) – almost a trillion dollars – over the past decade.
- Big oil tax loopholes, including oil industry specific tax breaks and unnecessary general provisions, will cost the federal treasury $40 billion over the next decade.
— Noreen Nielsen
Below are old comments from the previous Facebook commenting system:
Thank Bush and chenny for our GAS prices, you have ROBED the America people and still lineing your pockets that why you went to WAR in Iraq Looking at those oil wails.
And the rich get richer…
Exactly! This is disgusting
July 28 at 11:09am
Good thing they get to keep it all. Thanks Bushanomics. Even put Boehner in charge to make sure they keep their entitlements.
July 28 at 5:12pm
oflibertysons
Why do we spend so much time at the same thing – showing how big oil promotes climate disinformation, making fun of stupid conservative anti-science views, kicking away at right wing media for their propaganda.
What a waste of energy. So why do we do it? Because we all like “business as usual.” This is what we did yesterday, so we feel comfort in doing it today. The world goes on and that is comforting.
This longing for business as usual is what causes ordinary citizens to deny in their own minds that global warming will change life for all of us. We deny that change that science say will inevitably come with more carbon in the atmosphere because we long for business as usual. It is a very strong impulse. This impulse may have bestowed some evolutionary advantage, so the impulse is built into each of us.
But here at Climate Progress we should be adult enough to put aside this longing for business as usual. Why? Because it deters us from taking that necessary stop: the hard, necessary thinking and planning and leading for the new kind of earth humanity will face as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow.
We are going over that waterfall. It is time to begin building a “barrel” that will have some chance of saving the best of civilization. If there is no plan, no preparation at all, there is a good possibility that no one will survive. This is going to be a rough ride at best. Let’s start by facing the fact we are going over that fall and get busy thinking how best to endure it.
What about a bit of boycott? What about putting some pressure on the government to create a functioning affordable public traffic system. They get their share of the oil money and are able to invest into alternatives.
Prokaryotes
Time for the true Rockefeller’s to buckle up their affords?
Rockefeller family members press for change at Exxon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/business/worldbusiness/26iht-exxon.4.13223497.html
Prokaryotes
300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-J91SwP8w.
THAT’s AN EPIC FAIL!
What top’s it now, is the continued EPIC FAIL (2.0).
Fundamentally, fossil energy is destined to fail. Either adapt OR DIE!
Here is how to stop them. Free Public Transit. Available now. Proven. Low-tech. Initial cost, 60 basis points of tax. Starts paying for itself immediately.
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