WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In response to reports that oil industry giant ExxonMobil’s third-quarter earnings rose to $10.49 billion, the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly-traded U.S. company, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior Democratic Member of the House Energy and Commerce and Resources Committees, today issued the following statement:

“Coming just a few days before Halloween, ExxonMobil’s latest earnings reports may be a treat for their shareholders, but they’re a dirty trick for American consumers.”

“It seems like almost every quarter ExxonMobil and the other big oil companies are shattering all previous profit records.  These companies are doing so not because they’re creating any new product or being innovative, but because they control the supply of foreign oil that feeds America’s addiction.”

“For the last six years, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and the Republican-controlled Congress have pursued an energy policy drafted up by the oil companies and designed to boost their profits.  Republican leaders have pushed for billions in special tax breaks for big oil, allowed these companies to drill for free on the public’s lands even during times of record oil and gas prices, opened up other public lands for them to drill on at bargain basement rates, and weakened environmental regulations the oil and gas industry considered to costly or inconvenient to comply with.  Those energy policies may have allowed ExxonMobil and the other big oil companies to enjoy windfall profits, but they’ve been a dismal failure for the American consumers who are struggling with high gas prices and home heating bills.”

“ExxonMobil’s windfall profit reports only underscore the need for our country to move in a new direction that makes us less dependent on oil to meet our energy needs.  That’s why we need a Congress that adopts stronger fuel economy standards that make our cars and SUVs consume less gasoline, and that mandates rapid development and deployment of alternative energy technologies such as solar, wind, and ethanol.”