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They Can’t Have It Both Ways
Feeling a little squeezed at the gas pump? Schools, businesses and families are all hurting from $3-plus gas prices. The only ones that aren’t hurting are big oil company CEO’s, who make record salaries as their companies charge us record gas prices.
Last year, the top executives at the 15 largest oil companies earned at least $512.9 million. That doesn’t include the type of extras that brought ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond a total of $400 million last year.
Of course, the oil companies say they’re not responsible for the high gas prices that generated their $78 billion in profits last year. When ExxonMobil’s Lee Raymond was called before Congress to explain the high prices at the pump, he stated that it simply reflects “global supply and demand.”
Just this past week, the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s trade association, took out a full page ad in the New York Times that said, “...the global price of crude oil is the single most important factor in what you pay for fuel at the pump.”
But here in California, the oil companies’ campaign against Prop 87 is telling voters that gas prices will go up if the oil companies pay their fair share to California for drilling our oil. Get it straight guys. Either it’s the global market that dictates the price of oil or California oil companies – which, by the way, account for less than 1% of the global supply of oil.
The fact is, Proposition 87 will not increase gas prices because – as the oil companies themselves tell us – the global market doesn’t work that way. And Prop 87 makes it illegal for the oil companies to raise gas prices to pass their costs on to us. That’s been confirmed by the California Attorney General.
Clearly, someone’s off message. The oil companies had better get their stories straight – because right now they’re lying about Prop 87 and undercutting their own talking points that say they are not engaged in mass manipulation of gas prices.
We suggest that the oil companies huddle and decide which message it’s going to be – are they manipulating gas prices or lying about Prop 87?
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