WASHINGTON -- Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and the House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming have called on top-level executives from the five largest oil companies at a hearing that Markey said is intended to probe the causes of and solutions to America's oil dependence.
Executives scheduled to testify yesterday before the committee at the hearing, "Drilling for Answers: Oil Company Profits, Runaway Prices & the Pursuit of Alternatives," included J. Stephen Simon, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp.; John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co.; [image-nocss] Robert A. Malone, chairman and president of BP America Inc.; Peter Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron; and John Lowe, executive vice president of ConocoPhillips.
Markey said their stance on defending tax breaks totaling $18 billion, and their commitment to delivering alternative fuels to the market, will be "tested" by the committee.
On Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline reached a record $3.28 per gallon, he said, citing AAA. "This new gas price record is a perfect example of why we need these oil companies to go on the record with the American people to discuss our dangerous dependence on oil," said Markey. "These companies are defending billions in federal subsidies needed for renewable fuels and clean energy while reaping over a hundred billion dollars in profits in just the last year alone."
He said that along with the Bush administration's help, the companies are fighting to keep $18 billion in tax breaks that Congress is attempting to shift towards renewable energy incentives for wind, solar, biomass and other climate-friendly sources. The House recently passed the Renewable Energy & Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008, but President Bush and the top oil companies are currently fighting to defeat the measure in the Senate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she formed the House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming to increase the visibility and priority given to America's oil dependence and global warming challenges.
"We have to move beyond this oil economy," Markey said Tuesday on CBS' The Early Show, according to an Associated Press report. "We have to move to a renewable energy economy.... We can never get out of this trap as long as the oil companies want to hold us hostage to this old agenda."
The House last year and again on February 27 approved legislation that would have ended the tax breaks for the oil companies, while using the revenue to support wind, solar and other renewable fuels and incentives for energy conservation. The measure has not passed the Senate.
The oil industry has argued on Capitol Hill and at the White House that the tax breaks are needed to ensure continued investment in exploration, production and refinery expansions. President Bush has promised to veto any such bill, saying that the oil companies should not be singled out.
The threat of nationwide $4-per-gallon gasoline, perhaps this summer, and $100-a-barrel oil, is producing strong political reverberations, even as lawmakers acknowledged there is little that Congress can do to bring prices down.
On Monday, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) said that the president should release oil from the government's emergency reserve to put more supplies on the market, saying, "We are quite clearly in the midst of an energy emergency." He noted the bankruptcy of Aloha Airlines, blamed in part on high jet-fuel costs.
The White House has repeatedly rejected use of the oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to influence prices.
Congressional hearings and the probing of skeptical, frustrated senators and congressmen are nothing new to executives of the biggest oil companies, said AP. In May 2006, top oil executives were grilled on their spending and investment priorities in light of soaring oil prices. The cost of a barrel of oil at the time was $75. Two months earlier, executives of many of the same companies were brought before the Senate Judiciary Committee and questioned about the "merger mania" that some senators argued was behind the high oil prices. In November 2005, the oil executives sat at a Senate witness table and sought to justify their profits. At the time, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) reflected the views of many of his colleagues when he talked of "a growing suspicion that oil companies are taking unfair advantage."Click hereto view the hearing (click on image of Markey in upper-righthand corner).Similarly, presidential candidate Barack Obama is taking a strong stand against Big Oil in a recent TV campaign ad. Saying he won't let Congress "block change anymore," Senator Obama stands at a gas station and goes after ExxonMobil in particular in the ad.Click here to view the ad, andclick here to share your opinion about it.
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