Exxon

Enough is enough already. The average Joe is paying $30-$40 to fill up his or her car. People cannot afford to heat their homes. And year after year all of the big oil companies post record profits. In 2005 Exxon/Mobile posted the largest profit ever for any American company in history. Yet, they have trained us to think that $2.50 for a gallon of gas is a bargain!

All of the oil companies have recorded absolutely obscene profits on the backs of the average working people who depend on their products every day. Why single out Exxon? Well, we have to start somewhere and Exxon is the largest US Oil Company guilty of this gross unrestrained greed.

The oil companies always have a string of excuses at the ready to explain higher gas prices...production is down because of the hurricanes....they have increased costs to meet federal clean air standards.....increased costs for exploration and drilling.

Exxon/Mobil's profits rose 75 percent from last year.
Exxon, the largest U.S. oil company, reported net income in the fourth quarter of 2005 of $10.7 billion, compared to $8.4 billion a year earlier.
For the year, the company earned net income of $36.1 billion. That's up 31 percent from the $25.9 billion it earned a year earlier.
Exxon Mobil's 2005 net income for the year comes to $1,146 a second. That per-second profit is enough to pay for gas for the average American vehicle to be driven 10,294 miles, at current gasoline prices.
Revenue for the forth quarter of 2005 was $99.7 billion, up from $81.9 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
Full-year revenue came to $371 billion, or just over $1 billion a day.
Exxon became the first U.S. company ever to ring up quarterly sales of $100 billion.
Exxon's third quarter revenue was greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the largest oil producing nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
The world's largest publicly traded oil company also set a U.S. profit record with net income of almost $10 billion.
Exxon's average sale price for crude oil in the U.S. during the quarter was $52.23 a barrel, compared with $38.85 a year earlier. It sold natural gas in the U.S., on average, for $11.34 per 1,000 cubic feet, compared with $6.61 during the same period a year ago.
Exxon's revenue for the year exceeded Saudi Arabia's estimated 2005 gross domestic product of $340.5 billion.
Exxon's CEO, Lee Raymond, received a $51.1 million paycheck in 2005. That's equivalent to $141,000 a day, nearly $6,000 an hour. That's almost more than five times what the CEO of Chevron made.
Raymond's actual compensation including bonuses and other options was just under $70 Million in 2005 or $190,915 a day, including weekends.
Exxon's CEO is retiring this year with a retirement package worth over $400 Million!

Exxon has been screwing us long enough and it is time to return the favor. Consumers need to remember that THEY (the marketplace) set the prices, not the oil companies! I predict that it won't take long for the fat cats who have been enjoying raking in $1 BILLION a day to panic and adjust their prices if their income suddenly drops to nothing.

I have no problem with any company making a reasonable profit but the gross price gouging by the oil companies is just too much to continue to tolerate and it is time for the people to take a stand and show them that we DO have the power to control prices.

This is an opportunity to make a thunderous statement that we have had enough! Just imagine the emergency meetings in the board room at Exxon if everybody really stopped buying their products! Think of the message that this would send to the other oil companies when they are wondering who will be next! Imagine their surprise when they realize that the people have finally figured out that they CAN control the marketplace and are not mindless cattle that will pay whatever price is thrown at them. We DO have a choice.

While you at it, you might as well cut out buying middle eastern oil as much as possible since they never pass up an opportunity to screw us after we spend billions of dollars and thousands of lives defending them. These companies reportedly buy the least middle eastern oil:

UPDATE: Exxon is once again caught in their lies. Their latest excuse for the outrageous gas prices was all of the money they are having to spend repairing the oil rigs after hurricane Katrina. Well, the first quarter 2006 numbers are in and profit for the first three months of the year was $8.4 billion, up 7 percent from the $7.9 billion during the same period in 2005. Yeah, now I see why they had to raise prices.... they had to scrape by with a pitiful $8.4 billion profits for three months. Boo frickin hoo hoo hoo.

UPDATE: Bee County, Texas judge Jimmy Martinez is asking for a boycott and has pushed a major county resolution encouraging citizens of Beeville, about 90 miles Southeast of San Antonio, to not get their fuel at Exxon-Mobil stations.

UPDATE November 2006: Well, gas at the pumps got up to around $3.50 per gallon in the last few months before finally settling back to around $2.00 per gallon. We heard the continuing bullshit excuses for the higher prices. But guess what? Exxon's third quarter 2006 profits of $10.49 BILLION DOLLARS were the second largest ever posted by ANY company anywhere! Second only to it's record breaking fourth quarter 2005 profits of $10.71 BILLION. Exxon's profits continue to beat the general market by 60%-150% but they still cry the crocodile tears and tell us how they have to raise prices at the pump because of the cost of damage from hurricane Katrina or the cost of exploration or some other bullshit. Exxon generated nearly $35 Billion in free cash flow last year. I think that should fix a few oil rigs and maybe even build a couple of new ones. I would buy gas from Castro before I will give those gouging fat cats at Exxon another penny.

DON'T BUY EXXON / MOBILE GAS!