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08/08/2005:

"Big Oil's obscene profits"

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, announced a huge 32 percent boost in second-quarter profits, the third-largest increase in company history. The Big Oil bonanza came at a time when Americans are paying record-high prices at the gas pumps.

Washington's official reaction to that maddening news has been softer than silence. But before you search the skies for black helicopters, conspiracy theorists, do not rule out the possibility that sheer incompetence is also afoot. Blame here must be divided among the See-No-Evil Policymakers of this oil-friendly administration, the Snooze-and-Lose Democratic Minority-d'Perpetuity and Myopic Watchdogs who often function as Washington's de facto agenda-setters.

The news from Exxon Mobil established that the pattern was industry-wide. Royal Dutch Shell, the world's third-largest oil company, reported second-quarter profits up 34 percent. BP's (British Petroleum) were up 29 percent. ConocoPhillips, America's third-largest, reported profits that skyrocketed by 51 percent.

But this front-page-worthy news wound up buried by the news media. The Washington Post buried it four sections back, on page D2, under the headline: "Profit Soars at Exxon Mobil." The report from Bloomberg News didn't really link the fiscal ecstasy of Exxon, et al., with the fiscal misery of ordinary Americans who fill up at the pump. Over at the New York Times, editors not only buried the story at the bottom of page C6, but slapped on a headline ("Two Oil Companies Report Higher Earnings") so soporific it probably lulled even the hyper-caffeinated strategist James Carville to sleep.

What is more bizarre is that all of this news happened while Congress was enacting an energy bill that contains barrels of boondoggles - but which a wide range of experts agrees will do next to nothing to solve America's energy crisis. Not short term. Not long term.
Full:cincypost.com