  Rich Oil Companies/Struggling America ChevronTexaco Corp. last week urlLink reported record quarterly profits of $4.1 billion. You heard it. The company made four point one billion dollars in 3 months. The company had $37 billion in sales.
With record profits, I don't know how these oil companies can justify hiking the price of gasoline so much. How American that these companies are fattening their balances sheets and executive paychecks, while fueling oil speculation and dependency fears. What turned this story into a post was additional information in The Wall Street Journal (which requires membership and is a hassle for a lot of people): But the real key to the future is finding new oil at a time when most of the energy-rich Middle East is closed off to foreign oil companies, and major oil deposits must be found in more remote and unstable regions of the world. All of which makes exploration an increasingly expensive enterprise. With the help of recent windfall profits, "We have the financial strength to make these big investments," says Dave O'Reilly, ChevronTexaco's chairman and chief executive. "These are multibillion commitments. This is not for the fainthearted. " In an urlLink ABCNews science column , Lee Dye points out that companies rolling in cash don't have an incentive to look at alternative fuel sources. How true! They were built on oil and they will be oil until there isn't anymore oil left. Very short-sighted wouldn't you say?
The column very interestingly points out the faults of government subsidy and taxing the wrong types of fuels. Unfortunately, U.S. energy policy (including that made behind closed doors with Vice President Cheney), seeks to boost oil output and feed current energy consumption. It does little to boost alternative energy production or research or work towards conserving energy. The energy bill, which ultimately failed in the Senate (go Democrats! ), sought $23.5 billion in tax breaks for energy companies.
The amount to go towards renewable resources pales in comparison to this amount. When the No. 2 oil company in the world posts a 3-month profit of $4.1 billion, why are more tax breaks needed? Oh, that's right, the oil industries connection with the Bush administration. For more information, the Freedom of Information Center at Missouri University provides a urlLink report on oil giveaways written by The Center for Public Integrity. 
