"Network" is on TV right now, so to quote Peter Finch: "I'm mad as hell and not gonna take it ANYMORE!"
While we can all agree to have opposing political opinions, let’s try not to create unity by passing around a poor, beleaguered oil man’s
litany-of-pity-me-complaints that are out right falsehoods.
To that end I am going to address these laughably-tragically-erroneous statements one-by-one as an example of courtesy to those who seemingly,
blindly, believe whatever shows up in your email box and who also cannot be bothered to check the facts of anything you decide to pass along while
trying to influence how people vote. (...gnashing of teeth… growling…)
STATEMENT: “Did you know that the United States does NOT have any big oil companies. It's true: the largest American oil company, Exxon Mobil, is
only the 14th largest in the world, and is dwarfed by the really big oil companies--all owned by foreign governments or government-sponsored
monopolies--that dominate the world's oil supply.”
FACT: ExxonMobil is the world's largest company by revenue, at $404.5 billion for the fiscal year of 2007. It is also the largest publicly held
corporation by market capitalization, at $501.17 billion on April 18, 2008. While: ExxonMobil's daily production is still surpassed by several of
the largest state-owned petroleum companies[8] and it is only 14th in the world when ranked by held oil and gas reserves. [9] Currently, the company
ranks #1 in the world in net income, which was almost $40 billion last year.
en.wikipedia.org...
STATEMENT: “With 94% of the world's oil supply locked up by foreign governments, most of which are hostile to the United States,…(sentence
cont. below)
FACT: No, actually that number is 77 percent, (per James A. Baker the III’s institute no less
www.bakerinstitute.org...
) as to being hostile to the U.S. the UAE likes us, granted Venezula and Russia, not so much. But please keep in mind that the WTO has been busy
regulating how the Gov. owned oil co.’s can operate
www.ifg.org... and are forcing them to allow US oil
co.’s in.
STATEMENT: “….relatively puny American oil companies do not have access to enough crude oil to significantly affect the market and help bring
prices down. Thus, ExxonMobil, a "small" oil company”…
It’s a FACT: That I am rolling on the floor with this one. Honestly, does the man have no shame, or respect for the intellect of his ‘friend’?
See Above regarding how “small” Exxon is. Moving along.
STATEMENT: “The price at the U.S. pump is rising because the price the big oil companies charge ExxonMobil and the other small American companies
for crude oil is going up as the value of the American dollar goes down. They will eventually bleed this country into printing even more money and we
will go into runway inflation once again as we did under the Carter Democratic reign.”
FACT: The value of the dollar goes down when money is printed and interest rates are artificially low. Why are US dollars being printed? Currently
to bail out the Banks, the tune of a trillion I believe, since last September. And let us not forget the trillions of U.S. currency we sent to Iraq
to establish a new monetary system there, that was all freshly minted too. No doubt inflation is much higher than the Bush Administration
acknowledges, (See: Numbers racket: Why the economy is worse than we know
harpers.org... ) and will rise even more, but it
is a simplistic and reductionist argument to imply that more exploration by U.S. oil companies is going to resolve the massive challenge we face with
current and coming inflation.
[edit on 4-7-2008 by TheWayISeeIt]