Big oil may be too big, Specter says (threatens subpoenas)

[UpInArms]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BCF5D08C2%2D6C23%2D4DC5%2DBFDC%2DE60DE37E4842%7D&symbol=&siteid=mktw

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Big oil may have gotten too big, Sen. Arlen Specter, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday.

Specter, R-Pa., threatened to subpoena executives of the major oil firms to force them to appear before his committee to explain their record high profits and the high prices consumers pay for gasoline.

U.S. oil companies posted record profits in 2005, such as Exxon Mobil Corp.'s $36.1 billion earnings for the year, a 43% increase over 2004 and the largest profit ever.

"I am somewhere between impressed and astounded by these profits, and it raises big questions about whether something needs to be done in the merger and acquisitions field," Specter said at a hearing called to examine competition in the oil industry.

"We have seen extraordinary concentration in the energy industry," Specter said. We've had a string of consolidations which are really staggering."

<snip>

"The facts show that part of these record profits are the result of price gouging," said Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen in his testimony.

...more...

[ixion]

1. gouging, pure and simple, and advocated by BushCo

IMO, that's what all those secret energy meetings were about, and why their fighting to the death to keep them secret. :grr:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

16. No, no, no, no, no! This is American Capitalism at its very best!

You work hard at it until you have a population that is dependant on your product and you have a government that is friendly to your cause then jack the prices up as high as you possibly can to the point that you only start to strangle your customer.

Finally, after you drain the pockets of populace A and they are left destitute, you move your money machine to, say, China or India and do it all over again.

Remember, keeping laws and government out of big business is good for everyone!

[ixion]

20. how silly of me

I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for setting me straight. :evilgrin:

[entanglement]

24. You nailed it, TYJ!

I swear they PLANNED this thing down to the last detail!

[datadiva]

2. Did he just take his blindfold off? n/t

[brentspeak]

3. Don't "threaten" to subpoena

Just go ahead and issue the subpoenas. Anything else is just posturing for the cameras.

[wordpix2]

9. right, don't threaten and Just Do It

[Bluzmann57]

4. "Big oil may be too big"

Gee, ya think? And yet Specter supported installing an avid proponent of mega business on the Supreme Court. What a piece of work he is. But since he's (maybe) going after the oil companies, why not go after the communications people as well. Specifically the TV and radio biz.

[Kelvin Mace]

5. Arlen, you don't matter any more

The party knows that:

1) You'll be dead soon.

2) While you are alive, you have shown yourself to be a good boy who will get on his knees and open his mouth every time he's told to.

It would be different if you had made a point to oppose BushCo on things like Roberts and Alito. But you are just a tool, and soon you will be a dead tool, so no one in power is the least bit afriad of you.

[acmavm]

11. You do have a way with words. (And I'm not being critical

either.)

[Kelvin Mace]

12. Well, I am in a bad mood

and someone needed to say it. :)

[unblock]

6. if this goes anywhere, it's because the energy business wants it to.

sometimes companies -- well, shareholders, anyway -- make more money by spinning of divisions. if this goes as far as hearings and pressure to break up over-merged entities -- which i doubt -- it will only happen if the energy companies want to spin divisions off in the first place. then they can deflect all the price-gouging anger by sobbing, boo-hoo-hoo, we've been punished by being forced to break up out companies.

and then they laugh all the way to the bank....

[Double T]

7. The beltway BSers have aided and supported the creation......

of the BIG CORPORATIONS and now they think there might be a problem?? Many of us could see this coming before 'Wallstreet' the movie was playing in theaters. Could these congressional SOBs be that stupid? Answer: YES, definitely. Time for the senators and congressman to come out into the real world, they have completely lost touch with reality and themselves.

[wordpix2]

8. "lost touch with reality:" that's b/c we have one big Incumbent Party

beholden to Big Oil, Big Telecom, Big Pharma, et. al., ad infinitum, ad nauseum, to help incumbents stay in their nice, comfortable positions

[jarab]

10. Don't threaten subpoena! Do it !! eom

...O...

[yorkiemommie1]

13. but King George says it's the 'market' working

as it should be.

[humbled_opinion]

14. 36 Billion

The dealer sure does make sick profit off all us Junkies...

[EuroObserver]

15. Arrest that man! n/t

[hopein08]

17. Question is...will Specter put them under oath?

[Miss Chybil]

18. We're addicts, remember? Dealers always gouge addicts. nt

[hippiechick]

19. Wow, I never thought of that !

I'm forever indebted to Senator Arlen Specter - the author of the Magic Bullet Theory - for that epiphany.


D'oh! :freak:

[salin]

21. and the whisper that began after Katrina, starts up again...

windfall taxes...
windfall taxes...
windfall taxes...

Yet I suspect there is extreme confidence that among the big oil folks there is great confidence that their cronies would never allow that to happen.

[Demeter]

22. More Arlen Spectre Posturing

What a ghoul that man is!

[PVK]

23. Exactly right. Sphincter acts outraged and threatens "investigations".

So it looks like someone in the Republican party is actually doing something. Of course, all this "investigating" leads absolutely nowhere.

I would think people would have seen through Arlen by now.