[FR]

I don't think the CEO of Exxon is going to spend his $40 million salary/bonus on oil exploration. I really don't see an up side to the kind of profits the oil companies have made on the market speculation since Katrina.
I have no confidence for instance, that they'll reinvest in their fleet of oil tankers and rigs to improve their safety and security in an effort to eliminate oil spills.
And I suspect that they'll be back asking for more subsidies from the government to explore for oil, because China and India are out there competing for the same drilling rights.
I can't accept the "windfall" profits in the face of what's happened in the last year. Dgy is right.

FR

ps. Fuck Exxon

Edited by - FR on Apr 24 2006 09:30:17 AM

 

[FR]

OK JB, "Let me make this perfectly clear".

I disagree with Bush's record tax breaks for the oil companies during a time when we are at war, the oil companies are making record profits, and the distributors are gouging the market, which I don't need a congressional investigation to see.

I don't envy the CEO's money and I don't want him to give me any, but I think it would be overly generous to correlate the oil companies profits with a new greater effort from them towards exploration. Once again, I think they'll be back to the political trough looking for aid.

I think there is a precedent for companies to invest in safe environmental and socio/economic practices, even when that investment may take decades to pay off.

And I certainly don't mind companies making huge profits. I'm very careful about where I spend my money. I will not set foot in Walmart or Costco. I avoid purchasing Chinese made products when possible, but that can be extremely vexing these days, as I may wind up driving around quite a bit to find an alternative.

Walt Kelly was right though, we are our own enemy as a society, and that hasn't changed since he wrote that.

And you're partly right, I'm demonizing a corporation, and what I left out was the political machine, and in this case the two go hand in hand.

FR