“Record profit” is a meaningless term. Any large commodity market will set a record as the population grows.
The only number that matters is return on investment and the oil industry does not make enormous profits based on money invested. I’m sure this has been explained before on this board.
The oil industries are the most profitable of any industries in the history of the earth – or so I hear frequently on MSNBC. If they are not, please tell me what is. They are also sickeningly irresponsible.
Questioning whether they are subsidized by our government is straining at a gnat. Why else are they putting money into the campaigns of so many politicians? Why else is taking away their play-pretties such a no-no in Congress?
Claire McCaskill is not trying to make us resent the oil companies. We don’t need any prompting. Gosh, I would hate to have the job of publicity agent for the oil companies. What a no win situation! A subsidy by any other name would stink.
They also provide quite a few jobs. Pay gobs of money in royalties, which I might add most companies don’t have to pay, in addition to paying taxes.
And if they are irresponsible (for your information, no company wants to have their name in the news (other than BP, it seems) for environmental or safety issues), whose ultimate responsibility is that given that the regulations they work under are dictated by the politicians you elect? It doesn’t absolve them of their responsibility, but spending some of that tax money on providing some oversight, might be useful.
And I’ve never met the person yet who doesn’t benefit by the very product you bitch about that these companies produce.
No one is stopping anyone from using solar, or wind, or any other type of energy. Well other than the cost. But when push comes to shove the vast majority of your fellow citizens would rather drive their cars, when and where they want to do it, and not have to wait hours for a recharge or for some bus filled with smelly and noisy people that doesn’t really go where they require it to.