Should we cry for ExxonMobil? The multi-national energy corporation sued Santa Barbara County over what’s known as a “takings” in May for the Board of Supervisors’ decision to deny an oil trucking project that would have enabled the company to restart its operations offshore near Santa Barbara.
Recently, a judge ruled that a bunch of environmental nonprofits, such as the Environmental Defense Center, could join the suit on the county’s side. Exxon’s nemesis!
But before you get too teary-eyed over this “unfairly” treated company that can no longer make use of its private property because an oil pipeline burst in 2015, spilling oil along the South County’s pristine coastline, I’ve got some news to share!
As ExxonMobil announced its third quarter earnings the last week of October, Americans paid an average of $3.76 for a gallon of gas, Californians, $5.29 (that’s another story). The average price per gallon has increased by almost $2 since 2020.
And that increase in money you’re paying at the pump is helping companies like ExxonMobil collect those dollars, babeeee! They’re raking it in!
ExxonMobil announced a $1.8 billion increase in its earnings from the previous quarter. Year-to-date earnings, the company said, increased by more than $20 billion year-over-year. Oil production grew by nearly 90,000 barrels a day. The oil giant that exemplifies the term Big Oil also stated that it “achieved best-ever quarterly refining throughput in North America”—meaning the most oil refined in three months. In addition, Exxon’s paid out $15 billion in aggregate dividends to its investors for the year: that’s ONE BILLION DOLLARS, 15 times.
So what exactly are we paying for at the pump? Supply and demand? Sounds like there’s plenty of supply if ExxonMobil is achieving “best-ever” records. All I can think about is how corporations basically own us and American politics works for them. Not us.
That earnings report makes me think that “inflation” is an elaborate joke that we don’t get because we can’t stop fighting about stupid conspiracy theories that align with our worldview about our fellow humans. And the oil companies started it all with a sleight of hand line about the Russian War in Ukraine and oil supply.
Who’s gullible now?!
USA! USA!
ExxonMobil is also in the process of selling its Santa Ynez Unit (of lawsuit fame) of offshore oil platforms, an onshore processing facility, and the pipelines that run between them. Why? Exxon’s not stupid. They “loaned” Sable Offshore Energy Corporation—well, soon to be corporation if a merger goes its way—more than $600 million to purchase the unit and its associated facilities. But it comes with a giant caveat: If Sable can’t restart oil operations there (which have been stalled since 2015) in the next five years, Exxon can take the property back.
Sable is a Canadian-based company. If you Google it, the company was (is?) a joint venture between Shell—also Big Oil—and Exxon, so what’s going on? An elaborate shell game (pun intended!) with Big Oil holding all the shells.
The canary can’t afford wings! Send gas cards to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2022.
