Markey: Exxon, Oil Co. Record Profits Made Off Backs, Gas Tanks of American Consumers

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Contact: Select Committee, 202-225-4081

Markey: Exxon, Oil Co. Record Profits Made Off Backs, Gas Tanks of American Consumers

Bush Admin Continues Opposition to Repealing Tax Breaks for Big Oil, Renewable Energy Investment

WASHINGTON (February 1, 2008) – Today Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the highest quarterly and yearly profits for any company, ever. This follows a concerted effort, aided and abetted by the Bush administration, to strike portions of the recently-passed energy bill that would have repealed billions in oil company giveaways by the former Republican Congress, and re-apportioned that money to a renewable energy fund to create a new generation of fuels.

“The President’s oil-centric energy policy has shown itself to be completely bankrupt for everyone but the oil companies,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. “While the oil companies are turning the American consumer upside-down at the pump, shaking out every last cent, the White House is defending unnecessary giveaways and tax breaks to big oil. At a time of record oil prices and record oil company profits, the Bush administration should not be standing in the way of ensuring that oil companies pay what they owe to drill on public land.”

Exxon’s net income in the fourth quarter of 2007 was $11.66 billion, and the yearly profit topped $40 billion. Other major oil companies like Chevron and Conoco also saw increases in profits as oil prices spiked above $100 early this year and gasoline and heating oil prices continue to hover around or above $3 per gallon.

The energy bill that passed out of the House of Representatives late last year repealed billions of dollars in tax breaks given to these highly profitable companies, and would have channeled those monies into a renewable energy fund to spur the development in renewable energy. The Bush administration threatened to veto the entire bill due to the inclusion of these provisions, and they were eventually stripped from the bill in the Senate.

“Measures to repeal oil company giveaways have already passed the House, but have not yet been taken up in the Senate because of White House opposition. The President must support these provisions and prove that he is on the side of the American consumer, not the oil companies,” continued Chairman Markey.

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