This past month, the oil industry reported soaring quarterly profits. Chevron and Exxon recorded quarterly profits of $5.3 billion and $9.25 billion, respectively.
“The oil industry continues to rake in record profits at the expense of our health, our economy, and our environment,” said Sierra Club public lands director Athan Manuel. “This is the richest industry in the world, and yet they continue to sidestep the kind of simple safety measures that might have helped prevent the Gulf oil disaster. These oil executives are counting their mountains of money while they put our kids’ health at risk every single day from pollution.”
The profit announcements come as Big Oil continues to battle safety and pollution regulations and efforts to scale back oil subsidies. In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama called for an end to federal oil subsidies.
“It’s time to end subsidies to the oil industry once and for all,” Manuel said. “Instead of supporting dirty, outdated fossil fuels like oil, we should be investing in efficiency, clean energy, and solutions like electric vehicles that will benefit all Americans, not just a wealthy few. We already have technology that will create jobs, protect our health, and help make America a global leader in the new clean energy economy. There is no reason we should be propping up the bloated oil industry. Taxpayers shouldn’t be left to clean up the oil industry’s messes. Investing in oil at a time like this is kind of like pouring money into VCRs or typewriters. It’s a technology that is on its way out. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
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