ExxonMobil VP Ken Cohen
wants you to know that the company is a victim of high oil prices too:
“ExxonMobil doesn’t set oil prices,” noting the company produces less than 3 percent of the world’s daily oil supply, “so it’s really not credible to suggest that we are responsible for world oil prices.”
But then he urges angry Americans to think local, not global. “How are pump prices set at Exxon and Mobil stations?” Cohen writes. “We don’t own 99.5 percent of them, and therefore we don’t set the price. Local stations are often owned by a businessman or businesswoman in your community, and they set their own prices based on local market conditions.”
And if all else fails, Cohen reminds readers that companies in other industries make tons of money as well.
“In 2010, ExxonMobil made less than 8 cents for every dollar of revenue from all of our businesses around the world,” he wrote.
Presumably, ExxonMobil's profits will be mindnumbingly huge when they are announced in the morning, but just keep in mind what Cohen told you: it's not their fault. They are every bit as much a victim in this as you are. It's all the fault of the dastardly service station owners who keep on jacking up the price. And by all means, nobody should dare even consider taking away ExxonMobil's tax subsidies (especially you John Boehner!). It would be totally unfair to target prevent a company from getting corporate welfare just because it doesn't need it.
