As the US administration grows more desperate this week as gasoline prices exceed $ 5 a gallon in the United States, President Biden is now targeting individual oil and gas companies – ExxonMobil.
Biden’s statement, which sought to respond to inflation in May, was harsh – both for the oil industry as a whole and for Exxon in particular.
“Why don’t they break through?” “Because they make more money, not more oil,” he said. “Exxon, start investing and start paying your taxes.”
The president also said he would make sure everyone knew how much Exxon was earning. “Exxon made more money than God last year.”
To be precise, Exxon’s net profit was $ 23 billion in 2021, offsetting the loss of $ 22.4 billion from the previous year. Exxon’s 2021 earnings were behind Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Alphabet, Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Bank of America – and barely won over the Federal National Mortgage Association, Fannie Mae.
On the issue of taxes, Exxon’s income taxes for the first quarter of 2022 alone were $ 2.8 billion, and income taxes for the full 2021 were $ 7.6 billion, according to Macrotrends and CSI Market.
Biden’s statement against oil follows a similar statement Thursday, where National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti told CNN in a telephone interview that “it is outrageous that oil and gas companies are able to take advantage and do four times as much. When asked about the White House’s potential to support a contingency tax proposal, Ramamurti said they were “open to many different ideas.” We realize that there is a problem here that we have to deal with. “
By Julian Geiger for Oilprice.com
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