Pumping Up Part Three: Oil Companies Post Record Profits

Consumer ire grows over oil profits
The major oil and gas companies knew there would be a public backlash against their massive profits from higher fuel prices and took out advertisements urging conservation, suggesting they were looking out for consumers.

Yet Amy Myers Jaffe, energy expert at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, says they could have done more than signal higher fuel bills; they could have helped prevent them.

Top execs from oil majors to defend record profits
Top executives from three major oil companies, including two from Houston, will be heading to Washington, D.C., next week to take on questions from senators worried about the huge profits the companies reported last week, according to Associated Press and Reuters reports.

Oil firms face questions over the industry's record profits
When gas shot above $3 a gallon, Rep. Lee Terry’s Nebraska office received about 50 constituent calls a day, about five times the rate of what had been considered a high-volume day.

The calls have since fallen along with prices at the pump. But the costs of diesel fuel, which local farmers often rely on, and natural gas, which heats 85 percent of the homes in Terry’s district, remain high, causing anxiety among voters and their representatives alike.

Also see:
Pumping Up: Oil Companies Post Record Profits
Pumping Up Part Two: Oil Companies Post Record Profits

Tension: Gas Pains
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