The Oil Drum

I just want to take a second to explain myself here. Some of you took this post to mean that I don't believe that the oil companies have made windfall profits this year. Of course I know they did, and even if I didn't before, I certainly can't refute the recent Exxon and Shell announcements. My point in that previous post was that I am frustrated that politicians have decided to focus all of their interest in energy issues on the windfall profits, rather than on more important concerns, like, say, whether or not the Saudis have as much oil as they say they do. As I said in the comments to my earlier post, lowering gasoline prices for the consumer now just doesn't make any sense given the larger supply issues that keep emerging.

Still, on the topic of windfall profits, Gristmill reported a good one today:

At a press conference this afternoon, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton came up with another creative reason to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling: The oil companies need some place to invest their record profits!