Feb 10, 2007 Joe Michaels
Last week, the Exxon-Mobil company announced that it had enjoyed a record profit of over $39 billion in 2006.Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), in a speech to the Democratic National Committee, stated that she would like to "take those (oil industry) profits.....and put them into a strategic fund....for alternative energy sources!" (See the clip on Youtube.)
The search for alternative energy sources such as ethanol are in demand, but it cannot but new sources of energy won't be used en masse until their prices equal buying power. Exxon made $40 billion because they succeeded in the marketplace.
General Motors lost billions of dollars last year, Pfizer just announced plans to close their facility in Ann Arbor, MI, thereby eliminating 1,200 jobs. Exxon is an easy target, taking home $40 billion while we are paying upwards of $2.40 per gallon gas at the pump, but the price of gas has increased due to, among other things, a decrease in supply due to the war in Iraq and the hostility of the Chavez regime in Venezuela, a major oil state.
But what if Exxon chooses not to expand their operations? Consider If the Exxon executives invest their profits in the stock market, they help the economy by making money available to other businesses. The best thing for our communities are successful corporations (provided, of course, that they don't leak tons of radioactive waste into the surrounding ground.)
