On a slippery slope

Oil

(Click for chart source.)

Fuel protests claim 2 lives in Europe (as fuel protests spread into Asia):

At the heart of a movement which began weeks ago by Mediterranean fishermen, lorry drivers' pickets at Spain-France border caused massive disruption to fuel, food and even parts deliveries for industrial output. Spanish fishermen were keeping up their strike.

Truckers in Spain, France and Portugal launched stoppages on Monday, and by Tuesday tens of thousands were either on strike or joining protests to demand government help to offset higher fuel costs, news agencies reported.

As fuel protests spread to Asia, hundreds of Indian government employees trying to march on the office of Kashmir's chief minister were beaten by security forces, police officer Pervez Ahmed said.

About 20 people were hurt as police in Kashmir resorted to batons and water cannon to ward off the protesters.

China has been forced to defend price caps for fear of crippling agriculture and other industries. Japan is salting away money for subsidies and loans to help small businesses, while Malaysia's government is to slash ministerial perks in a bid to persuade workers it is doing all it can to offset their difficulties.

In Hong Kong, workers simply demanded that fuel tax be scrapped - a measure Brazil has already adopted - on the same day Russia's Gazprom suggested that the price of a barrel of crude could top 250 dollars.

GOP senators spike windfall profits tax on Big Oil

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democratic initiative that would have taxed the windfall profits oil companies have enjoyed due to rising energy prices, with the minority leader calling the proposal a "gimmick."

Six Republicans, including three seeking re-election in November, broke ranks to support the bill.

Along with placing a special tax of 25 percent on oil companies, the bill would have permitted lawsuits against the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the oil-producing cartel, and suspended deposits into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Profits from renewable energy sources would be excluded from the tax.

2 Energy Bills, Including Windfall Tax, Stall in Senate

The oil-tax proposal was one of two energy-related bills that failed to advance. The other was a proposal to amend the Internal Revenue Code by providing “incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes,” as the measure to promote new energy sources was officially described.

Republican opponents of the oil-tax measure have argued that higher taxes on Big Oil would backfire, driving up gasoline prices and discouraging new domestic oil production and exploration.

The White House said the United States was “paying a price today for decades of Democratic opposition and regulatory obstacles to increasing domestic oil production,” as President Bush’s spokesman Tony Fratto put it. “Instead of populist votes that would do nothing for gas prices, we need to allow domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways,” Mr. Fratto said.

Who Are The Oil Profiteers?

The Democrats Who Proposed A New Tax

In the first quarter of fiscal 2008, explains Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation, Exxon paid $9.3 billion in income tax to governments across the world on income of $20 billion.

But that’s not all. Exxon paid $20 billion in other sales, excise, severance and property taxes, brining their tax bill to nearly $30 billion.

[NB: Those other taxes are deducted before the calculation of the income tax mentioned above, which is itself based on net income, meaning after all allowed expenses and deductions and other credits have been subtracted. The author of this piece is a bit disingenuous in suggesting this is all cumulative.]

Thanks to Congress, which is under the spell of enviro-socialists, Americans are sitting on 635 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Congress, not oil companies, is to blame for high oil and gas prices.

Big Oil Is Owed Some Love

Crude oil is up 42 percent since the year began, but the best the supermajors are able to manage is an 8.1 percent gain for Chevron. ConocoPhillips is up 5.5 percent, and the biggest of the big oils, Exxon Mobil, is down 6.6 percent, barely beating the performance of the broad stock market.

Shareholders might have expected to do better from three companies that combined to produce net profits of $20 billion in the first quarter alone.