Big Energy Continues to Enjoy Record Profits

In an announcement that surprised absolutely no-one, energy corporations continues to set records for quarterly profits.  The heavyweight, ExxonMobil, reported profits of $11.68 billion in three months.  Demand starting falling earlier this year.  It’s taken a while for oil and gas prices to follow, and they certainly haven’t fallen by similar percentages, but profits are still skyrocketing.

I wanted to spend some time discussing the language of the CNN-Money article.  One sub-headline reads: “Pricey oil cuts both ways”.  The richest among us continue to try to throw a pity party for themselves.  The only thing that results from high oil prices that oil corporations have to buy is their profits are less than they otherwise would have been.  The rest of us should be grateful that Exxon only made $11.68 billion.  It could have made even more!

In an attempt to parry criticism levied at corporations like Exxon, more articles like this one are starting to include descriptions of “where the money is going”.  The article touts the $7 billion Exxon spent on finding and producing more oil.  Interestingly, production still fell 8% from year-ago levels.  $7 billion just doesn’t get you what it used to, I guess.  The real problem isn’t locating new oil – corporations know where plenty of it is.  It’s the lack of refining capacity in the U.S.  Remember, a new refinery hasn’t been built in 30 years.

The article mentions $10.1 billion went to shareholders in dividends and stock buybacks.  It goes on to bring up all the taxes Exxon and others have to pay.   Waaaaaah!

In terms of governmental policy, the corporate welfare Exxon and others are enjoying should be shut down.  With demand continuing to increase and corporations working to keep supply down, their profits will continue to set records.  Why should the American taxpayer give them more of their hard-earned money?

Another point on corporations locating new oil and wanting more off-shore areas to be opened for lease: when will the corporate media bring up the fact that the Gulf of Mexico was opened up for leasing two years ago?  Oil and gas prices have shot up ever since.  Where’s the oil?  Where’s the relief at the pump?  The answer is easy: corporations are sitting on those leases, which helped cause the increase in price and thus in their profit.  Corporations have no real interest in increasing supply.  They’re sitting on a resource that is dwindling and they know it.  If Congress is stupid enough to open off-shore areas, prices will not go down.  The facts in the past two years bears that out.  It sounds really good right now while we’re all paying more than we ever have for gas.  The best way to bring down prices in the environment set up by the big energy corporations and their lackeys in our government?  Decrease demand.

Global Warming Denyers Falsify Scientists’ Work

The following certainly deserves its own post.

A leading global warming denyer outfit, the Heartland Institute, has been called out by scientists whose work they misrepresented. What happened? Well, the Heartland Institute held a conference back in early March called the ‘Climate Skeptics’ Conference. Following the conference, the Institute made sure to distribute widely (the Vast portion of the Vast Right Wing Machine) an article entitled, “500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares.” Wow, that sounds impressive, doesn’t it?

As it turns out, it’s not so impressive. Dennis T. Avery, a “Senior Fellow” at Heartland and director of the Hudson Institute, wrote the article. He should have done a better job. An activist looked at the 500 names and emailed 122 scientists Monday afternoon. At last count, 45 of them have responded, rightfully outraged, that their work in no way supports Avery’s conclusions and have demanded that their names be removed. If you’re familiar with the Oregon Petition, this event falls neatly in line with that bogus effort. Those 45 scientists issues responses only in the first 24 hours following emails being sent to them. I expect there will be others moving forward.

Is there a special interest that has a history of funding Heartland? Of course: ExxonMobil. Importantly, Exxon is not the only source of funds. However:

Heartland’s extreme anti-environmentalism no doubt spawns from its supporters. Between 1998 and 2005, oil giant ExxonMobil gave nearly $800,000 to Heartland. The group’s Board of Directors also explains the group’s climate change denials:

– Thomas Walton is the Director of Economic Policy at General Motors.

–James L. Johnston is a former senior economist for oil company Amoco Corporation.

–Walter F. Buchholtz is a former member of Heartland’s board of directors and worked as ExxonMobil’s Senior Issues Advisor.

See, here’s the thing: climate change is completely supported by peer-reviewed research articles that have been presented in scientific journals. As I’ve noted before, the only problem that research has is, as incomplete as it is, it has so far underestimated the effects of human-caused climate change. Understandably, the research and forecasts of future effects has also failed to incorporate unforseen feedbacks, such as millions of acres of trees that have been killed by mountain pine beetles releasing their stored carbon into the atmosphere.

In the larger scheme, however, this event, and others before it, clearly demonstrate a lack of integrity from the right-wing’s global warming denialists. If they can’t find 500 scientists willing to put their names up for Avery’s article, they shouldn’t trumpet their efforts to do so. This is a cheap gimmick designed to lend credence to their argument. Their lack of honesty has efficiently taken any such credence away.

This is how desperate the fringe right-wing is, folks. They have to cobble together names of supporters without first notifying them, despite the fact that those scientists’ work don’t advance their ideology’s argument. If their arguments and positions were solid, they wouldn’t have to lie and distract to attract attention and support. But instead we are forced to watch spectacles like this. If the facts worked in their favor, there wouldn’t be such a large machine spending millions of dollars per year to convince the public of them.

Mike Rosen’s Global Warming Disinformation Mouthpiece: Maureen Martin

He’s done it before, but this will mark the first time I’ve covered Mike Rosen’s efforts to spread global warming disinformation by hosting denyers on his radio program on 850 KOA (via Colorado Media Matters). Amy Oliver, another radio host in the market, has hosted plenty of her own denyers, so Mike has company. The thing that is similar between the two hosts is their utilization of “free marketeers” as “experts” on climate change. This episode builds on the right-wing’s attempt to scare people into thinking discussion about climate change is secretly hiding an anti-economy viewpoint. It’s nonsense of course, but they will fight tooth and nail to maintain their lock on our economic system, no matter how much it strengthens the disparity between classes.

Mike Rosen introduced Maureen Martin as a “senior fellow for legal affairs at the Heartland Institute”. That’s sounds impressive, doesn’t it? The Heartland Institute is only one think tank among many that focus on “free market” approaches. It has become more clear to Coloradans recently what kind of “free market” these advocates would like to move toward: indentured servitude, human trafficking, child prostitution and compulsory abortions, via the Schaffer-Abramoff proposal. No thanks, Bob, Mike, Maureen and Co. I actually support workers’ rights – they’re what created and what sustain the middle class.