[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 86 (Friday, May 23, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1088-E1089]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             RENEWABLE ENERGY AND JOB CREATION ACT OF 2008

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                               speech of

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 21, 2008

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam Speaker, oil prices have now reached $135 a barrel 
and regular gasoline averages $3.81 per gallon around the country. 
Meanwhile, the big five oil companies are reaping the rewards of record 
prices. The major oil companies recorded more than $123 billion in 
profits in 2007. However, rather than reinvesting the bulk of those 
profits to advance a strategy that vigorously incorporates renewable 
energy alternatives, oil company profits have been spent largely to 
fund huge increases in stock buybacks designed to prop up stock prices. 
ExxonMobil--the largest of the major oil companies--recorded $40 
billion in profit in 2007 and spent $31.8 billion repurchasing shares 
of its own stock. Meanwhile ExxonMobil only spent $10 million investing 
in renewable energy in 2007.
  The oil industry in the past 5 years has undertaken one of the 
largest stock buybacks in the history of capitalism. Spending on share 
buybacks for the five major oil companies went from under $10 billion a 
year in 2003 to nearly $60 billion a year in 2007. Big Oil has 
increased spending on stock repurchases from $7.9 billion in 2003 to 
$57.7 billion in 2007--an increase of 630 percent. The increase in Big 
Oil's spending on stock buybacks in recent years has been so 
remarkable, and indeed unprecedented, that Exxon spent more 
repurchasing its own shares in the first quarter of 2008--$8 billion--
than all the major oil companies spent on stock buybacks for all of 
2003.
  The money being invested by Big Oil in all types of production still 
pales in comparison to the value being returned to shareholders in the 
form of dividends and stock buy-backs. While ExxonMobil has increased 
capital investment in drilling and exploration from $12 billion in 2003 
to $15.7 billion in 2007--an increase of roughly 30 percent--ExxonMobil 
has increased spending on stock buybacks from $5.9 billion in 2003 to 
$31.8 billion in 2007--a five-fold increase.
  The legislation that I am introducing today, the Renewable Investment 
and Consumer Protection Act or 2008, would impose a 10 percent fee on 
all stock buyback transactions entered into by major oil companies and 
redirect that revenue to fund investment in renewable energy and low-
income energy assistance programs. If the oil companies refuse to

[[Page E1089]]

help American families by finding alternatives to $4 gasoline, then it 
is time for Congress to ensure that we invest in renewable technologies 
such as solar, wind and biofuels that can help American consumers, our 
economy and our planet.

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