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Exxon Mobil's massive profits are bad for the environment
Three out of the top five largest corporations are oil companies. How do you fight a company that makes $1,000 a second in profit?
Thu, Jul 29 2010 at 2:44 PM
 7

Related Topics:

Gulf Oil Spill, Oil & Gas

Photo: Qnr Away For a While/Flickr

Exxon Mobil just announced that its second quarter earnings are $7.56 billion, nearly doubling the company's tally for the second quarter of last year.
 
That's almost a thousand dollars a second in income.
 
And that's a bad year for them. In 2008, they made more than $45 billion, which works out to a little more than $1,400 a second.
 
How do you fight something that big? Something that rich? An immortal entity with almost unlimited resources and control of all the people who make the rules.
 
So far in the wake of BP's oil leak, there have been no new significant reforms or regulations on oil drilling. New oil disasters (in a Michigan river, China and the Gulf) pop up in the news every day, and we all just keep on trucking on. We're not learning from this disaster; we're not using it as an opportunity to change the way we use non-renewable resources. The GOP has the Democrats so boxed in and out-maneuvered that the left has been unable to make any meaningful advances on climate change legislation.
 
Why? Because companies like Exxon Mobile don't want it to happen. When you're invincible and immortal and make $1,000 a second in profit, what you don't want to happen usually doesn't happen.
 
Seriously, how do we fight that? Exxon Mobile is just one of a number of cash-rich energy companies committed to the fossil fuel status quo. Their power, taken together, is almost unimaginable. How do you fight that, in any other way than very, very slowly?
 
What do you think?
 
 
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Comments: 7
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anonymous
Wisdom_of_the_ages Jul 31 2010 at 10:08 PM
You know what I haven't seen properly practiced in about 80 years? The boycott. Ultimately, people will either rise up and soar ever higher, or we will evolve in different directions, them and we... Who will become what? Is H.G. Wells right in Time Machine? There will be no fighting, because the top crust sees to it that the lower classes feel as though war is a terrible, terrifying thing fought for greedy reasons, and that holy wars are things that get fought in vein against our military (most
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often very poor people)
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anonymous
Scott S Jul 31 2010 at 12:31 PM
I love how everyone wants to fight the evil oil companies. These people must hate cars, electricity, heat, plastics, computers, tires, bubble gum, make-up. . . The list goes on and on. You can't hate an industry, especially one that contributes so universially to our modern lives, thats why they are so rich! Why are we trying to punish companies that are good for business, good for their employees, and good for their millions of shareholders! And why are we awarding companies who gambled and
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lost (GM, Chrysler, Fannie Mae, Bank of America) - when did the motto of America become punish success, reward failure????? Its not politics or politians, its us - they are just doing what they think we want, and we keep electing them . . .
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anonymous
Guest Jul 03 2011 at 5:37 PM
If the people do not put down companies such as exxon mobile, by the way there are plenty of other oil companies to supply us with our need for oil, if the people do not stand up and put this company into receivership, bankrupt, due to the people boycotting their product that yields the most profit, oil for diesel and kerosene gas, we will always have these no concience companies in our face forever. All it takes is making them bleed money until they die...Will the people heed the call and block
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their gas stations and their gas holding tank farms and other outlest that exxon mobile own to put them out of business? Probably not because they are wimps and can't stand the thought of having to drive a little further to get their gas. The people are afraid of them and the oil companies know it and they know they can get away with this type of oil spill and do nothing about it. They are still fighting any pay out in Alaska. Do you hear anything about that from that dirt bag Sarah Palin? It is her state and obviously she does not care anything about it. Check up on how the oil spill in Alaska is STILL causing deaths among the animals in the area and the oil has spread over the years much further than they had reported before. They lie to us and all the people do is turn the other way and ignore the problem. Just like you seem to be doing with this comment
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anonymous
Homer S Jul 31 2010 at 2:25 AM
You talk about the profits of the oil companies. What you don't say is what it costs the oil companies to make the profits and what percentage of the profits are of the total costs to run the business. If you were truthful about the whole mess you would find the oil companies run less that 10% profits. That not bad for major companies and certainly not obscene. If you looked up the facts your story would be just a bunch of garbage. I do not support the oil companies. I do not hate them either. I
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leave the hating to the liberals. They do it so well. You know, hate the rich, hate big business, hate big oil, hate big Pharmaceuticals, and hate the military. They do absolutely love and adore big government. Just tell the truth, why don't you. You hate big oil so much. Can you imagine how your world would be today without oil? There is not one thing you use, eat, drive, fly, or see that is not connected to big oil some how. It will be that way for the next few thousand years. Even when all the ground oil is depleted, there will need to be some imitation oil products developed to replace "natural" oil. By the way, do you really think BP purposely caused the leak? Does BP just love to waste billions of dollars by causing a spill? Billions more cleaning it up? Even billions more settling law suits? The truth is it was an tragic accident. A devastating ecological accident that will be around for years. But still an accident. Now your god and savior, the mystical man of change, the holy self anointed savior of the planet PURPOSELY would not allow 13 nations that had the equipment and technology to clean up mess come and help. Remember the beach berms Obama told the state of Louisiana not to build? Remember the clean up barges that Obama kept in port because they didn't have enough fire extinguishers? Did you know that, or are you just ignoring the facts? Why would he do that I wonder? Well, it comes right out of the pages of the socialist play book. "No crisis shall be wasted." It is pure politics. If Obama truly wanted the mess cleaned up as soon as possible, he would have accepted help from everyone. He would have busted his butt to make sure it got done. But no, he did not. November is coming up and he needed ammo for elections.
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anonymous
Purple P. Pleater Jul 30 2010 at 5:07 PM

In the wake of BP's oil spill, you want to know how to fight a company that had nothing to do with BP's oil spill? When the Valdez spilled, did you want to know how to fight Shell?

And boy, that GOP must really be something to box in and outmaneuver the party that has strong majorities in both houses of Congress and holds the Oval Office. Here's a hint: Democrats are a bunch of shills too. If you're really serious, vote out the Reds *and* the Blues and support the Greens.

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anonymous
DavidHasselhoff... Jul 30 2010 at 9:54 AM

You can fight the evil oil by throwing your car off a cliff. That will show them. Those jerks!!!!!! All that oil and stuff!!! ARG! It makes me so mad that I'm gonna drive my CAR!!!!!!!! ARRG!

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anonymous
Andrew S Jul 30 2010 at 9:19 AM
That number is truly staggering. If BP's profits are/were anything like Exxon's, the price it will pay for killing the Gulf is about a week's profits. No wonder Tony Hayward seemed to care less. Apart from switching to non-oil-based transportation, which is still beyond most of our abilities right now, we can start driving less as a culture. Three ideas: 1) help make cities more attractive places to live; 2) protect or otherwise restrict exurban areas from rampant home-building & road construction; &
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amp; 3) harness this new-found public outcry for 'financial responsibility' within govt to end out-dated and unneccesary subsidies for these companies that clearly don't need the help.
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