Brandon Bell / Getty ImagesMajor Western oil companies reported record profits in the second quarter alongside gas prices that have topped a national average of more than $5 a gallon.
ExxonMobil and Chevron's share prices are now just a few dollars short of their year-to-date highs, as the companies promised to increase stock buybacks and pay down debt, actions designed to reward shareholders. The companies' profits have become a political flashpoint. Even before the second-quarter financial results came in, President Joe Biden warned last month: “We’re going to make sure everybody knows Exxon’s profits ... Exxon made more money than God this year.”
"The increased risk of geopolitical uncertainty demands that we turn our focus to increasing U.S. energy production and bringing good paying energy and manufacturing jobs back to America," U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin , the bill's key supporter, said in a statement this week."While this may seem like commonsense, this Administration’s current solution is to push forward more costly regulations resulting in less U.S. production while inexplicably asking other nations to pump more oil.