ROBERT WEISSMAN, via Barbara Holzer, bholzer at citizen.org, Dorry Samuels, dsamuels at citizen.org
President of Public Citizen, Weissman said today: “ExxonMobil and Shell today announced skyrocketing profits, as did BP yesterday, and as Chevron will tomorrow. The reason is simple: Prices at the gas pump are jumping, even though the cost of drilling hasn’t changed for the giant integrated firms. Big Oil is able to pocket the difference — at the direct expense of consumers.

“Beneficiaries of such a windfall certainly should not be the recipients of billions in government subsidies.

“Even more fundamentally, there is an obvious response to the windfall profits of the oil companies: a windfall profits tax. The government should tax the windfall profits of the oil giants, and invest the money in renewable energy programs, so that we reduce our dependence on oil and dirty energy.”

ABC News is reporting today: “Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell today reported first-quarter profit increases of 69 percent and 30 percent, respectively, from the same period last year. With rising gas and oil prices, analysts expected the five biggest oil companies — with Exxon as the largest — to report that they are swimming in revenue.”

AP is reporting: “Venezuela is imposing a windfall profits tax on royalties from oil projects when crude prices are above $40 a barrel, seeking to squeeze as much as $16 billion mostly out of foreign oil companies, the government said Tuesday.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167