romleys, via Flickr
by Noreen Nielsen and Jackie Weidman
Chevron, the second largest oil company in the United States and eighth largest in the world, announced earning $7.2 billion in profits in the second-quarter of 2012, bring their total profits for the first six months of this year to $13.7 billion. The slight drop in profits is being attributed to “weakened oil prices from the year before, though fatter refining margins cushioned the blow.” Chevron’s production has decreased by nearly 5 percent (4.7%) compared to this time last year, from 1.88 billion barrels of oil (+ liquid natural gas) to a current rate of 1.78 billion barrels per day.
Below is a glimpse at where Chevron is spending its billions in profits:
- Chevron has already spent over $5 million on lobbying in 2012, coming in as the fourth highest spender of the oil and gas industry. Collectively, the oil and gas industry has already spent nearly $70 million on lobbying this year, with Exxon, Shell, Koch Industries, Chevron and BP topping the list.
- Chevron has already contributed nearly $700,000 to federal campaigns this year, with 89 percent of contributions going to Republicans.
- Chevron paid a 19 percent effective federal tax rate in 2011, well below the statutory corporate rate of 35 percent.
- Chevron spent 18 percent of its Q2 profits buying back stocks ($1.3 billion), which enriches the largest shareholders.
- Chevron CEO John Watson received over $17 million in compensation last year.
- Chevron is sitting on cash reserves totaling $21.2 billion, up from $15.8 billion in January.
With just BP left to report its profits on Tuesday, four of the five Big Oil companies have already made over $57 billion in the first half of 2012.
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All financed by the fundamental flaw of Western Capitalism, the ability of the few to profit from the exploitation and pollution of the commons. The fresh waters and oceans of the world become acidified, the air becomes overly energized, the topsoil parched, food shortages face the world, epic floods rampage the nations of the world and more, yet the few profit from dumping 19 pounds/gal. of toxins out the exhaust of the commerce. (Try throwing out 19# of paper cups /gal of fuel you burn out the car window and please report back.) The GOP do not fund abortion. My tax dollars as well as a large portion of my taxed income pay to promote the ecocide of the planet and I cannot even get the question acknowledged!
When they started destroying nature “in the name of progress”, the ‘Conservatives’ transformed and became True Regressives withstanding any attempted change to the Status Quo who seem to be doing just fine. So it has been going on for some time now. Without some necessary changes to that status quo I expect to see the misfortunes of a Dicksonian world combined with the swiftness of modern weaponry. The Status Quo shows no signs of yielding to reality.
These gods must be crazy.
Until we get off oil, get used to the profits. Until demand plummets world wide, oil is crucial. Remember,too, that profit per unit of revenue is lower for the big oil companies than the tech companies like Apple. In the end, ask which one is more important. So tax, cap and trade, or cap and dividend and decrease oil production. Let’s be clear that the intention is to crush oil demand and get to the post fossil fuel era asap.