ExxonMobil Continues To Clean House

The majority of Americans are struggling at the pump and consequently in all other places that deal with their bank account (food, health care, utilities, etc). With record prices for oil and the popularly refined product known as gasoline, people are being tapped out more than ever to get from point A to point B. So where is all that money going?

From RawStory:

HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results fell well short of Wall Street expectations and shares fell in premarket trading.

The world's largest publicly traded oil company said its net income for the April-June period came to $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 40 percent to $138.1 billion from $98.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

Nearly twelve billion in profit....that is approximately a billion dollars a week....for one single oil company (granted it is the largest, but still). How we do not have a windfall profits tax on these greedy bastards is incredible. People are suffering across the country because of the high cost of oil and only a select few are making money off of it.

Bush would never sign anything to help anyone but his base, but Congress must get a bill ready for President Obama to sign in January so that we can start to fix this problem by reining in the oil companies and starting to make a meaningful investment in alternative energy.

Supreme Court Sides With ExxonMobil Over Valdez Spill

Anyone that tells you that politics doesn't figure into the courts doesn't know much about what is going on in politics these days. When conservative Republicans appoint ideological judges bent doing whatever they can to help big business no matter how large the fuck up, there is a serious problem going on. The Court itself hangs on a balance now and could get worse if McCain is elected. With another Republican in the White House, it will be easier to see more awful decisions like this from now on.

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the nation's worst tanker spill.

By a 5-3 vote, the high court ruled that the punitive damages award should be slashed -- limited by the circumstances of the case to an amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages of $507.5 million.

The justices overturned a ruling by a U.S. Court of Appeals that had awarded the record punitive damages to about 32,000 commercial fishermen, Alaska natives, property owners and others harmed by the nation's worst tanker spill.

In the majority opinion, Justice David Souter concluded the $2.5 billion in punitive damages was excessive under federal maritime law, and should be cut to the amount of actual harm.

The only harm here was done by Exxon all those years ago and the Court's decision today. Now ExxonMobil makes $2.5 billion in a matter of days, they could have easily paid the amount of damages stipulated in the lawsuit. The Supreme Court had no business taking up this case, it should have been left to the lower court. For Souter to say that there shouldn't be punitive damages is absurd. Those damages are awarded in cases that span the legal spectrum and to think that fisherman and those that live along the coast weren't traumatized by the man-made ecological disaster is preposterous.

Corporate America is chomping at the bit to see McCain in office (and nominating judges), so they can get away with whatever they see fit in order to profit at everyone else's expense.

It Must Be Nice To Be Rex Tillerson

Who you ask, is Rex Tillerson? Only the CEO of the infamous Exxon Mobil. He heads the monolithic oil company that fuels an oil-addicted world its daily ration of poison. He oversees the contamination of the ground, the water and the air. It is a tough job and most likely many would not have the skill (or lack of conscience) to run such an organization. To those that sympathize with this poor, poor man...don't worry too much, he's being compensated quite well.

From The Wall Street Journal:

For the Exxon Mobil Corp. board of directors, the answer was a $16.7 million compensation package for Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, up 28.6% from a year earlier.[...]

To judge the performance of the 56-year-old Mr. Tillerson, the Exxon board looked beyond commodity prices to measures such as total shareholder return and return on capital employed. The Irving, Texas, oil giant is the largest U.S. company by its market capitalization -- about $479 billion, according to Thursday's share price.

Mr. Tillerson earned $1.75 million in base salary last year; he'll get a raise to $1.87 million in 2008. He received a bonus of $3.36 million last year, up 20% from a year earlier. The rest of his compensation package included an increase in value of his vested stock grants and pension, as well as smaller items such as personal use of the corporate aircraft ($41,122) and security ($229,331).

On the downside for Rex and other execs at Exxon Mobil, they are no longer going to be reimbursed for country club memberships (how stingy!) and that 25 to 100 thousand dollars will just have to come out of their own pockets. Yeah, its rough, but hey, with nearly $17 million coming into the bank account every year, I think Rex can manage.

As for the rest of us, the price of asthma inhalers will continue to rise, since demand is going to keep going up as the world becomes more polluted thanks to the greed of the oil companies and their disdain for the environment.

Oil Companies Get Their Greedy Hands In The Iraqi Door

If anything brought a smile to George Bush's face yesterday, it would be the deal made in Iraq over oil and not his useless endorsement of presumptive nominee John McCain. Bush is only endorsing him because he won enough delegates, what Bush truly cares about is profits for his oil buddies/campaign contributors. Although the technical support agreement isn't all that they hoped for, it is definitely seen as a positive move in the quest for Iraqi oil.

From The International Herald Tribune:

Speaking to reporters as he arrived for a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, al-Shahristani said the Oil Ministry was still working on the compensation details with the Development Fund of Iraq, controlled by the U.S. and the U.N.

According to the Oil Ministry official, BP will submit a proposal for the Rumaila oil field, Chevron for West Qurna stage 1, Exxon for Zubair, and Shell for Missan and Kirkuk.

Iraq's average production was 2.4 million barrels per day in January while exports stood at an average of 1.92 million barrels per day. December's exports averaged 1.81 million barrels per day.

In dire need of expertise from international oil companies to achieve the Oil Ministry's target of 3 million barrels per day by the end of 2008, Iraq has been relying on a Saddam Hussein-era natural resources law until Parliament approves a new oil law to regulate the international oil companies' work and share Iraq's oil resources among the country's Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Now this all sounds good in theory and our pResident can definitely try and use this to show 'progress' in Iraq, but reality tends to differ from White House press releases. These oil fields can not be operated from within the relatively safe Green Zone. Men must go out and operate equipment to drill oil from the ground and move it to port to be brought to market. There are many factors that exist in the Iraqi desert that could preclude said oil from making it to the preferred destination. Now that al-Qaeda and insurgent groups know that their oil will go into western hands, some may be angered enough to sabotage operations (and have already). So we'll see just how great these technical support agreements actually are.

Burning People Into Oil Gets Industry's Attention Until....

Have you ever heard of Vivoleum? According to two men at a Canadian oil conference, Exxon has now made it possible to turn the dead into oil. They told the audience not to worry about climate change, because Vivoleum was the way of the future.

From BitterTonic:

“Representatives” from Exxon and the National Petroleum Council reassure us that in the worst case scenario, the oil industry could “keep fuel flowing” by transforming the billions of people who will die in an environmental calamity right back into oil.

“We need something like whales, but infinitely more abundant,” said “NPC rep” “Shepard Wolff”.

“”Vivoleum works in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of fossil fuel production,” noted “Exxon rep” “Florian Osenberg.” “With more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum. Fuel will continue to flow for those of us left.”

Scared? You should be. Because this crazy presentation that was delivered June 14th at GO-EXPO, Canada’s largest oil conference, wasn’t outed as a prank until nearing the end of the speech, when the fake representatives lit candles supposedly made from actual Vivoleum obtained from the flesh of an “Exxon janitor” who died as a result of cleaning up a toxic spill. The audience - 300 oil men - only reacted when the janitor, in a video tribute, announced that he wished to be transformed into candles after his death.

The two pranksters were escorted out of the building rather quickly, but the local police did not find anything seriously wrong with their actions. Commonly known as the Yes Men, these guys travel around and pretend to be criminals such as oil execs, arms dealers, etc. and make light of all the evil that these industries engender.

The scary thing is that their audience listened intently to the processes described to turn human bodies into oil. To these crooks it is all about the dollar, if they don't care about the planet why would they give two shits about respecting the dead.

Going To Work Green To Pollute The Environment

Every little bit counts when it comes to saving the environment, but this story is a little ironic. Oil companies in Houston are encouraging their employees to commute by bicycle while keeping the gears of the refineries going. The program helps save gas, reduces the budgets of the workers and gives a nice little PR piece for the oil industry.

From The Houston Chronicle:

Some of the world's biggest gas peddlers are encouraging their workers to pump the pedal.

Exxon Mobil, BP and ConocoPhillips are among the Houston-area employers trying to make it easier for employees to bike to work.

Workers already have enough excuses: potholes, impatient drivers and the Houston heat.

But some businesses are easing the commute for those who decide the exercise and reduced emissions make biking worthwhile. They're giving them locker rooms, shower areas and safe places to park their bikes.

The program itself is great and I believe more companies should offer programs like this. However these companies like BP and Exxon are among the world's biggest polluters, helping to contribute billions of tons of carbon monoxide in the air every year. They should also focus on helping society wean itself of their oil...but profits tend to get in the way of such things. So while biking to work is great, the price gouging and continuation of the oil addicted society far outweigh any good that comes from this little stunt.