Senators grill oil company execs over huge profits...

[DeltAlum]

The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned major oil company CEOs over record profits today:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24757944/

"But senators complained the executives were trying to come across as “hapless victims” while raking in record profits. They wanted to press the executives about public anguish over paying $60 or more to fill up a car’s gas tank.

“Where is the corporate conscience?” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked.

“People we represent are hurting, the companies you represent are profiting,” (Sen) Leahy told the executives. He said there’s a “disconnect” between legitimate supply issues and the oil and gasoline prices motorists are seeing."

I wonder if anything will come of the hearings this time. It's the second time this year the executives have been called to testify.

[jon1856]

Reminds me of when Big Tabaco was in the same seats.
"How much money did you make last year? the Vermont Democrat asked the top executives of the country’s five biggest oil companies. They had been summoned to a Senate hearing to explain the extraordinarily high cost of oil and gasoline and their companies’ profits.
Three executives said their compensation was in the millions. Two said they didn’t know."

[TexasWSP]

You have “just a litany of complaints that you’re all just hapless victims of a system,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the executives. “Yet you rack up record profits ... quarter after quarter after quarter.”

This coming from the same woman who relentlessly crusades in California against finding and producing oil and gas.....something that would help the very situation that she is griping about.

What are they expecting these oil execs to say? It is all about supply and demand. That's about as brutally honest as it gets.

Where is the corporate conscience? Well, Mr. Durbin......where's the common sense my friend?

[shinerbock]

Dick Durbin is such a POS. This is blatant pandering to the ignorance of the American people (who think the oil companies are involved in some scheme to drive up prices).

[Tom Earp]

Count me in shinerbock!

I cannot beleive when they said they make .04 cents a gallon how in the hell they make BILLIONs in profits.

They are given Federal tax breaks for exploration and building new refineries. When was the last one built?

One in Arkansas City, Ks. was dismantled so as not to sell it to buyers.

But as one pundant said, it takes 15 years to get through the EPA paper work and the I do not want it in my back yard mentality.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by TexasWSP

What are they expecting these oil execs to say? It is all about supply and demand. That's about as brutally honest as it gets.

Where is the corporate conscience? Well, Mr. Durbin......where's the common sense my friend?

This is really the issue, for me - why are we grilling dudes about making an asston of money? Seriously - if the Senate wants to rein in oil profits, they're going to have to do it with legislation, not some sort of pseudo-moral pandering against capitalism.

The very fact that they'd prefer a dog-and-pony show to actually taking action should show you exactly what this is: playing to the public to no effect, other than soapbox moments to be replayed during the next election cycle. It sucks.

"Record profits" . . . why don't we bring in people who drive Hummers and discuss "record consumption" while we're at it?

[LPIDelta]

I wish someone in Congress would recognize that there is a difference between profits and a profit margin....

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

"Record profits" . . . why don't we bring in people who drive Hummers and discuss "record consumption" while we're at it?

Or we could talk to Microsoft, a company whose profits have been increasing at about twice the rate of the oil companies.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Or we could talk to Microsoft, a company whose profits have been increasing at about twice the rate of the oil companies.

Truth - when you have a legit monopoly (not just some sort of quasi-oligarchy board-sharing arrangement) and can shrug off settlements in the hundred-million-plus range in literally every state in the union . . . I mean . . .

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Or we could talk to Microsoft, a company whose profits have been increasing at about twice the rate of the oil companies.

Your point is valid, but you don't have to fill your car up with microsoft to get to and from work. Maybe they should be taken to task as well, but that's beside the point here.

Sorry, but profits setting new records every quarter while prices to the consumer skyrocket are a problem in my mind.

What was the first quarter number -- something like $26 Billion?

In the first quarter alone?

[nate2512]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

Your point is valid, but you don't have to fill your car up with microsoft to get to and from work. Maybe they should be taken to task as well, but that's beside the point here.

Sorry, but profits setting new records every quarter while prices to the consumer skyrocket are a problem in my mind.

What was the first quarter number -- something like $26 Billion?

In the first quarter alone?

Microsoft is also in the business of developing newer current products, and is also selling more than one product.

Oil companies sell a very limited array of products and they aren't developing any new products.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

Your point is valid, but you don't have to fill your car up with microsoft to get to and from work. Maybe they should be taken to task as well, but that's beside the point here.

No, but for 90% of the people, you have to fill your computer up with problematic, artificially overpriced and continuously upgraded MS software before you can actually use a computer (and for many, that means "work" too).

Additionally, I'm sorry to say that most people do indeed get to choose whether or not to purchase gas. Ride your bike to the bus station, take the light rail, carpool, whatever - the American "driving lifestyle" is not a right or a duty, is it?

If you live in a city too small for public transit, you can likely find non-car transportation (because there simply is not that much distance to cover). If the distance is too great, you can likely find public transportation. Most people refuse, because it is an inconvenience - well, we pay for convenience, and the oil companies profit off sloth.

It's demand - not need.

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

Sorry, but profits setting new records every quarter while prices to the consumer skyrocket are a problem in my mind.

What was the first quarter number -- something like $26 Billion?

In the first quarter alone?

Why is this a problem, given that every other company is allowed to set prices at, essentially, "whatever will maximize my profit" (which can be read as "whatever someone will pay")? At what point do we say "well, we'll allow the Invisible Hand to guide our economy . . . except for when it's inconvenient for me or gets too expensive, then I'll whine about it" and think that's OK?

This is akin to complaining about insurance profits - you can always self-insure, or shop around, or take an active role . . . and those are the things that will eventually reduce insurance overhead and profit, not complaining to ineffectual Congressional hearings. You have options - and, likely, the best option is for you to pay $4/gal for gasoline. As long as you continue to pay, they'll continue to charge - and that's OK. There is no duty to reduce profits for the "greater good" - altruism is of limited utility, and don't you think asking for it is selfish?

To put it another way - some people live in crappy, government-sponsored apartments out of necessity. You don't sell your house, move into a smaller one and give them part of the earned equity so they can move into a slightly better apartment, right?

[KenUDiggit]

Since I don't know too much about economics, has the supply really dipped down or has demand shot through the roof?

[Kevin]

How much profit is too much profit?

[shinerbock]

Originally Posted by Kevin

How much profit is too much profit?

This is exactly the type of questions many liberals think government should answer. Very disturbing.