Re: SC7

http://www.counterpunch.org/nader02042006.html

The Most Obscene Profits in American History

"America is addicted to oil," exclaimed the President. No one more so than the President himself, a former oil industry executive who appointed over three dozen oil men like himself to high posts in his Administration-a regime marinated in oil.

The results have been, to say the least, oily. Talk as he has started to do about renewable forms of energy, his actions speak louder. Last year, Bush's energy bill passed with billions of dollars in new subsidies for gas and oil, as if a staggering price for $60 or $70 a barrel is not enough to provide incentives to profit-glutted oil companies to produce.

Before reaching his desk, Bush made sure that some of the legislation's provisions were cut out. The renewable portfolio standard that was to require electric companies to obtain a certain percentage of their fuel from renewable sources was dropped. Bush also rejected an "oil savings amendment" to reduce oil use. And, of course, he adamantly refused to support any higher federal standards for motor vehicle fuel efficiency which has reached its lowest dismal level since 1980. Going backward into the future-GM style!.................
Drained long ago of any empathy, Bush did not even react to the stupendous profit reports last week by the big oil companies, led by Exxon Mobil corporation's $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter of 2005 and $36.13 billion for the entire year.