Comment & Debate
David Roberts. “Oil industry barely hangs on, thanks to brave Republican defense of subsidies.” Grist.com. February 1, 2008: “You may recall that a couple of months ago, Republicans in the Senate threatened a filibuster to defend about $13 billion in oil company subsidies. In other news, Exxon Mobil just posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company in history — $40.6 billion. It also set a record for the largest ever quarterly profit — $11.7 billion. The second biggest U.S. oil company, Chevron, saw its profits rise 29% to $4.88 billion for the quarter. Clearly, this is an industry that desperately needs government help. Renewables are just going to have to wait until oil gets through this crisis.”