As Exxon Mobil Rings Up Still More Record Profits, GOP Lawmakers Relent to Allow Judiciary Committee Vote
As Exxon Mobil Rings Up Still More Record Profits,
GOP Lawmakers Relent To Allow Judiciary Committee Vote
On Leahy's NOPEC' Bill To Reign In Oil Cartel
The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday morning approved a bipartisan bill co-authored by Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to promote competition to reduce fuel costs.
The vote was held an hour after Exxon Mobil announced quarterly profits even higher than the firm's record profits a year ago, as some Republican senators suddenly dropped their threat to block the committee vote.
The bill, which would empower federal antitrust agencies to help prevent oil companies and OPEC from manipulating oil supplies to raise prices for consumers, is sponsored by Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Leahy (D-Vt.), the panel's ranking member, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
Leahy, who noted that Exxon Mobil opposes the bill, said, "Exxon Mobil's attitude is what's yours is ours, and closer scrutiny is not negotiable. They rake in these jaw-dropping profits while taking tax breaks from American consumers with one hand, and brushing off accountability bills like this with the other. OPEC and the big oil companies have American consumers over a barrel, and it's past time to energize our antitrust laws to give consumers a fairer shake."
Leahy noted that recently retired Exxon Mobil's CEO Lee Raymond, in recent testimony before the Judiciary Committee, admitted that his firm allocates only $10 million a year to alternative fuels research, compared to Exxon Mobil's $36 billion in profits last year alone, the largest profits ever logged by any company in history. "No doubt they'll be spending a lot more than that on the propaganda campaign the oil industry is launching," said Leahy. He said he now will call on the Senate's Republican leadership to promptly schedule a Senate vote on the bill.
Raymond himself is set to receive one of the highest retirement packages in history from the oil company, $400 million.
The centerpiece of the bipartisan bill is the "NOPEC" legislation, which has passed the Judiciary Committee three times in recent years, while passing the Senate once, as part of the Senate's version of last year's energy package. House leaders and the White House stripped the NOPEC bill from the final energy package.
The bill would lower fuel prices by preventing companies from withholding oil and gas in an effort to raise prices. It would allow OPEC members to be sued for conspiring to control output and fix prices for crude oil. Other provisions of the bill would charter a joint federal and state task force to investigate information sharing between oil companies to determine if that practice has encouraged anti-competitive pricing, while directing federal antitrust enforcement agencies - the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission -- to consider whether future consolidations need closer scrutiny.
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200604/042706b.html