ExxonMobil Profits Fall Short But Still Anger Activists
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
April 28, 2006 1:05AM EST

By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
April 27, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - ExxonMobil Corporation on Thursday announced profits of $8.4 billion during the first quarter of 2006, not enough to satisfy Wall Street, but too much, according to environmentalist enemies of the company.

ExxonMobil Chairman Rex Tillerson stated that the corporation's profit for the first three months of the year was up 7 percent from the $7.9 billion during the same period in 2005. However, economic experts had predicted the company would turn a profit of over $9 billion. As a result, Exxon shares fell by over 1 percent in early trading on Wall Street.

Thursday's announcement was part of this week's mixed bag of economic news from the world's biggest oil producers.

On Tuesday, London-based BP -- the world's second-largest oil company -- said that net income fell 15 percent during the first quarter of 2006 due to higher taxes and a drop in output, but Houston-based ConocoPhillips -- the third-biggest U.S. oil corporation -- said Wednesday that its first-quarter profit rose 13 percent to $3.29 billion.

Chevron Corp. is expected to announce its first earnings report of 2006 from its headquarters in San Roman, Calif., on Friday.

Shawnee Hoover, campaign director for Exxpose Exxon, a national coalition of liberal environmental and public interest organizations, told Cybercast News Service that ExxonMobil's first-quarter numbers are "really not surprising."

"Exxon testified last month before the Senate Judiciary Committee, admitting that they are pushing the costs of oil -- production, exploration, you name it -- onto the captive consumer," Hoover said.

"The American public is increasingly fed up with ExxonMobil's profits and arrogance," he added. "Consumers are angry about high gas prices and high CEO pay-outs, but they get even angrier when they learn about Exxon's agenda to keep us addicted to oil and rob us of a sustainable future."

Hoover stated that the group's website has seen a 300 percent jump in visitors per week on average since ExxonMobil announced record-breaking 2005 profits of $36.1 billion.

According to Hoover, ExxonMobil is the only major oil company to spend $15 million to fund "global warming" skeptics, lobby against national reductions of "global warming" pollution, refuse meaningful investment of its record profits in renewable energies and oppose U.S. efforts to become energy independent.

"We have the technologies to transition our economy off oil and help bring down consumer energy costs," said Tim Greeff of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "ExxonMobil should invest in these renewable technologies or at least stop standing in the way of progress toward energy independence."

The Exxpose Exxon coalition is made up of such groups as Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, MoveOn.org, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

As Cybercast News Service previously reported, the "Exxpose Exxon" campaign was launched last July to report on ExxonMobil's allegedly "irresponsible and deceptive behavior."

Three months later, the organization began circulating a petition asking signers not to buy ExxonMobil's gas, invest in the company's stock or work for the company until ExxonMobil "cleans up its act and starts investing in an energy-independent future."

But H. Sterling Burnett, senior fellow of the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis, told Cybercast News Service that ExxonMobil "has been very clear" about its business policies.

"They're an oil company, not an energy company. Oil and natural gas is their business," Burnett said. "If other companies want to get into the other, less-profitable industries, that's their business. But if people don't like ExxonMobil's stance, they can buy from BP and Shell."

Burnett also disagreed with the concept of a "captive consumer."

"No consumer has to buy from an ExxonMobil gas station," he said. "I drive down the street, and despite all the mergers, I still have five or six different stations, maybe more, that I can buy from, and there's a gap in the prices at those different stations of more than 10 cents a gallon.

"So who's a captive?" he asked.

"In 2002, when the price of oil was $20 a barrel, gas was selling for about $1.50 per gallon. Now, the price of oil per barrel is over $70, which is more than a three times increase, and the price of gasoline has only doubled, so I'd say they're absorbing some of that cost," Burnett noted. "The difference is going somewhere."

Also commenting on Thursday's report by ExxonMobil was U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

"It is a travesty that oil companies should be making such staggering profits on the backs of Americans trying to fill their gas tanks," Reid said. "Americans expect their government to do something to help, and it's time for the Republican Congress to act.

"Democrats have offered real solutions to provide immediate relief, and I hope Bush Republicans will join us to ease the burden on the American people."

Burnett responded that efforts like those by Exxpose Exxon and Reid might lead to the imposition of a "windfall profits tax" on the oil industry like the one imposed during the administration of President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s.

"The Government Accountability Office did a study that found domestic oil production, contrary to popular belief, decreased 6 percent in the U.S. just due to the windfall tax, and imports of oil increased 16 percent," Burnett said. "Everybody gets hurt when that happens."

See Earlier Stories:
Environmentalists 'Exxpose' Exxon Through Rallies, Boycott (July 13, 2005)
Liberals Campaign Against ExxonMobil (Nov. 11, 2005)

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