Oil Company Profits Surge; So No Reason to End Their Special Tax Breaks

If That Makes Sense, Count Yourself a Conservative



Profits up 43%!



Two of America’s largest oil companies reported huge gains in second quarter profits. One of them, was pleased to announce that

Chevron reported a profit of $7.73 billion, or $3.85 a share, up from $5.41 billion, or $2.70 a share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 30% to $68.9 billion

The second, the always popular Exxon-Mobil was just as happy.

Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, said profit rose to $10.68 billion from $7.56 billion a year earlier, buoyed by high oil prices and increased production. The results rivaled the company's all-time record earnings of $14.83 billion from the third quarter of 2008, when oil prices hit $147 per barrel, but missed analyst expectations in part due to continued low natural-gas prices. Revenue climbed 36% to $125.49 billion.

One of the proposals supported by the President was to remove special tax incentives and tax breaks provided to the oil industry to help reduce the deficit.  The proposal was rejected by the Republicans and was never seriously considered as part of the deficit reduction package, although to be fair, on a scale of 1 to 10 the President’s effort would be rated a strong minus 1.2.