As Bush Fights for Big Oil, Exxon Mobil Puts Profits at $1,485 a Second

Contact:
- Miles Grant, National Wildlife Federation, 703-864-9599 (cell), grantm@nwf.org

WASHINGTON, DC (July 31, 2008) – ExxonMobil reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion today, the largest quarterly profit ever by any American corporation. On May 29, BNET.com reported Exxon Mobil plans to invest just $10 million this year in renewable energy.

Additionally, on July 22 the Associated Press reported, “The five biggest international oil companies plowed about 55 percent of the cash they made from their businesses into stock buybacks and dividends last year, up from 30 percent in 2000 and just 1 percent in 1993, according to Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.”

Adam Kolton, the National Wildlife Federation's senior director of congressional and federal affairs, said today:

“Just one day after President Bush renewed his demand for Congress to turn over more of America’s natural resources to Big Oil, Exxon Mobil reports the largest quarterly profit in America’s history, an amazing $1,485.55 per second. Let there be no mistake where that profit came from – the pockets of American drivers, the victims of a vicious circle. Our government gives America’s public lands and waters to Big Oil. Big Oil extracts the oil and consumers are forced to buy it because they have no other choice of alternative technologies or fuels – it’s buy what Big Oil is selling or walk to work. Big Oil takes that money and invests that money not in cheaper, cleaner renewable energy, but in stock buybacks and dividends.

“Now President Bush wants to start the circle again, asking Big Oil to bail us out of our energy crisis. If you’re trying to quit smoking, you don’t ask the Marlboro Man for help, and if you’re serious about quitting your oil addiction, you don’t ask Big Oil for help.

“Don't be fooled by the big lie. We can’t drill and burn our way out of our energy crisis. It’s failed Americans again and again while delivering record profits for oil companies. We need clean energy solutions to break America’s addiction to oil, give consumers real energy choices, recharge our economy and help solve global warming.”

Learn more about the real solutions that would cut our energy costs and ease our addiction to fossil fuels in the National Wildlife Federation's "Don't be Fooled" fact sheet:
http://www.nwf.org/nwfwebadmin/binaryVault/Dont%20Get%20Fooled%20FINAL.pdf

The National Wildlife Federation is America's largest conservation organization inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future.

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