The Oil Cycle
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 provides for substantial subsidies and tax credits to oil companies, for exploration and exploitation of new sources of oil. Exxon Mobil Corp., the number one oil producer and the world’s largest corporation, reported second quarter revenues of $88.57 billion, with net profits of $7.64 billion.
Exxon has so much money it has been buying back its own shares, and will increase it’s buyback to $5 billion in the third quarter. Production of oil and gas were actually down around 2% compared to the previous quarter, but Exxon makes so much money in its downstream operations (e.g. shipping, refining, transport and distribution) that it has more money than it knows what to do with. The Energy Policy Act gives them more.
If the intention is to reduce our energy requirements and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, this does not make a whole lot of sense. On the face of it, the subsidies will be about as helpful as playing around with Daylight Savings Time. As with most government policies, there’s more to it than meets the eye, and Jon Stewart of The Daily Show did a nice job of explaining it for us.
Actually there’s a very simple explanation for why already insanely rich oil companies get money from the government. It’s called the Oil Cycle
We begin with the American Family, a hard-working people who developed a taste for powerful engines and stretched televisions.
Through a natural process known as Taxation, the income of these families is broken down and reabsorbed back into a system we call the Government.
The Government swallows these funds and converts them into what are called Subsidies, some of which go to giant profitable Oil Companies. That “found money” can then be used to look for new sources of oil, and to use the public’s need for this oil to rape them, for profits.
These profits are then stored in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, to avoid a process known as Taxation, which was disussed earlier.
The Government then gives them… more money.
And thus, the, ah… “G” of Life continues.
Thanks Jon!
–SG
What do you think? Please enter a comment below.
August 7th, 2005 at 5:02 pm
Kudos to the Daily Show for explaining it, and to you guys for putting it in context but you left out an important part of the Oil Cycle, which is like this:
The government gives money to Big Oil for exploration and the rape of the wilderness, so the oil companies don’t have to spend their own money on this, but it frees up other money to buy more oil from Saudi Arabia, a portion of which is kicked back to the Bush family’s oil interests and political contributions.
A picture is worth a thousand words…
–editor’s note: The above comment was sent with a link to the photo, which shows Bush holding hands with (then) Crown Prince (now King) Abdulla of Saudi Arabia. The president kissed the prince on both cheeks when they met. The kisses and the handholding are normal male behavior in Arab cultures. Thus the kissing and handholding should be seen not as homosexual behavior but as an indication of the extent to which America must kiss Saudi ass to protect our primary source of oil, and the Bush family’s primary source of income.–
August 12th, 2005 at 4:18 pm
I was laughing my head off reading this. And then I went to look for my Shrub Quote of the Day and look what it was:
“It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas.” –George W. Bush, Beaverton, Ore., Sep. 25, 2000
August 12th, 2005 at 5:47 pm
How friggin stupid do they think we are? I just this minute read an AP report about how the price for crude oil hit an all-time record today of nearly $67 a barrel The report says the reason is because of US refinery outtages and the hurricane threat in the Gulf area. Let me see if I can figure this out. The people who buy the crude oil are saying… we can’t refine it, and the hurricanes might mean we can’t deliver it, so hmmm. we better buy some more crude, and pay more for it! How friggin stupid do they think we are?