[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16170-16171]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  OIL COMPANIES REPORT RECORD PROFITS

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to replace Mr. 
Emanuel.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from Oregon 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, today was a big day on Wall Street. The oil 
companies, the three biggest oil companies, have reported record 
profits. They are up an average of 30 percent over this quarter last 
year. They are making $200 million a day in profit.
  Now, you would think if the price of crude oil went up, it might 
squeeze their margins a little bit. No, they are working hand in glove 
with OPEC and the other producers around the world, and they actually 
get a premium. For every dollar a barrel it goes up, they add on a 
little bit more at the pump.
  They have closed down a large number of refineries across America at 
the

[[Page 16171]]

recommendation of the American Petroleum Institute. They had a memo 10 
years ago that they sent out to all their members in the oil industry 
saying there are too many refineries; the profits aren't there. If you 
close down some of these refineries, you could claim there was 
insufficient capacity and you could drive up your profits dramatically.
  In the last year, profits for refineries are up 60 percent in 1 year. 
Now, that is $200 million a day out of the pockets of American 
consumers, American business, stifling our economy, causing families to 
cancel vacations or change their plans, and people are having a hard 
time filling up their tank that live in rural areas in my district just 
to get to work.
  But the oil company execs and their stockholders, why, they are doing 
just fine. Exxon Mobil has so much cash on hand they don't know what to 
do with it; over $20 billion of cash. They are not investing in new 
production, new sources of energy, or new refineries. Hey, they like it 
the way it is with the so-called refinery shortage. It is a good excuse 
to gouge people at the pump.
  No, they are just plowing it back into their execs pockets and 
hanging onto cash and then buying back stock to drive up the value of 
their stock options. The recently retired CEO of Exxon Mobil, Lee 
Raymond, just retired a couple of months ago, they gave him a $400 
million retirement. And now, Mr. Raymond, Americans are struggling to 
fill up their gas tanks; right? It is hard to afford 50 bucks if you 
are driving an SUV.
  But Mr. Raymond, well, he isn't too worried about that. He is out 
buying oil fields and gas fields in the Middle East and in Africa. An 
individual, one guy, got so much money from ExxonMobil from them 
bleeding extortionate profits out of the American people, that he can 
afford to buy his own oil and gas fields. And certainly, I am sure, he 
will sell the capacity to his former employer, ExxonMobil, who will 
then mark it up handsomely, and they all come out ahead. The only 
losers are the American consumers.
  We need both a short-term and a long-term plan. We need a short-term 
plan to stop the profiteering and price gouging. We need to regulate 
oil trading like we do other commodities. We need to put a windfall tax 
on these companies unless they are investing their ill-gotten gains, 
their excess profits in new refinery capacity, in new production, and 
in alternate fuels.
  And then we need a long-term plan to make America energy independent 
and energy efficient. The so-called Bush energy plan will have us 
importing more oil from the Middle East. Imagine that, more oil from 
the Middle East 10 years from today than we are today. That is a great 
place to be dependent upon.
  The Iranians are profiting tens of billions of dollars from these 
high prices. Aren't they part of the axis of evil? The Bush policy is 
facilitating billions of dollars to the mullahs in Iran.
  It is time for America to get smart, and it is time for our 
government to lead the way to energy efficiency, energy independence, 
and clamp down on big oil. But we know that won't happen, because 85 
percent of the contributions of the oil and gas industry went to the 
Republican Party. And they were incredibly generous to the President in 
his last election. And, of course, both he and Dick Cheney are from 
that industry.
  But with a change in Congress and a change in direction, all those 
things could happen here and, hopefully, they will, in the interest of 
our country and not a treasured few of the President's friends.

                          ____________________