Big Oil made a helluva profit during the first quarter of 2008. Exxon’s gross sales were $116 billion. They made a whopping 9 percent gross profit per gallon at the pump in California at a retail sale price of $3.90 per gallon.
Federal and state net “profits” (taxes) at the pump are 17 percent.
They had a few expenses, too. It cost them $2.86 a barrel (gas pump sale price) to get it out of the ground last week. Then, there were refinery costs and profits: 0.24 cents per gallon; and distribution costs, marketing costs and profits: 0.13 cents per gallon.
There were also those pesky income, sales and other taxes they had to pay: $29.34 billion. Their effective income tax rate was 46 percent. And we, the purchasers of the gasoline at the pump, pay their U.S. taxes.
In summary, Exxon’s net profits were $10.9 billion; and the shareholder profit was $2.00.
Rewind to Senator Patty Murray’s speech on the floor of the senate on April 30:
She blames Republicans and oil companies for our energy problems. She wants to increase taxes on the oil companies to make them pay for their “obscene profits” and “bad behavior.”
Not a word about the environmental extremism she embraces which have caused our energy problems in the first place. She has never voted for drilling for more oil.
And, why should Senator Murray and her environmental colleagues have a say in our capitalist free enterprise system anyway?
She needs to explain how her proposal of taxing the oil companies (and the gas consumers who pay the tax) more than they now pay will get us one more drop of gas at the pump.
Our country is a laughingstock in the rest of the world. Everyone else drills for oil wherever they can. Not us.
We’d rather reduce our standard of living and have a “green” environment.
J.R. Leicester
Shoreline
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