Markey Announces Oil CEOs Hearing to Explore Oil Price Issues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Select Committee, 202-225-4012
Chairman Markey Announces Oil Cos. CEOs Hearing to Explore Oil Price Issues
Record Oil Prices Deserve Answers from Oil Companies
For testimony, pictures and video from the hearing, please CLICK HERE.WASHINGTON (March 11, 2008) – It’s a broken record for a near-broken economy—oil hit another price record today, crossing the $109 threshold for a barrel of oil, and the price of a gallon of gasoline reached record prices overnight. One Congressional committee, not satisfied with America’s crude oil status quo, will seek answers from the biggest oil companies in the world.
In response to continued opposition to a Congressional renewable energy package from the top oil companies in the world, and the high prices average Americans are facing at the pump, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, today announced he would seek to bring in the CEOs of the five biggest oil companies in the world to appear before his committee in early April as Congress returns from its Spring recess.
“The American people deserve answers from Big Oil,” said Markey. “The top five oil companies made record profits last year, and yet are continuing to hold onto tax breaks that could be used to advance the clean fuels of the future. Americans are not going to find the answers at the bottom of a gas tank, so we will seek to bring the CEOs of these companies to Congress and to the American people.”
ExxonMobil reported record profits of $40.6 billion in 2007, and the other top four oil companies like BP and Shell made billions more. Yet these same companies are fighting to keep $18 billion in tax breaks that Congress is attempting to shift towards renewable energy incentives for wind, solar, biomass and other climate-friendly sources. The House recently passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008, but President Bush and the top oil companies are fighting to defeat the measure in the Senate.
The Select Committee plans on holding the hearing on Tuesday, April 1, 2008, the first day available to hold hearings after Congress returns from its Spring district period recess.
“This is not an April fool’s joke on Big Oil, because the prices at the pump are no laughing matter,” said Markey. “It’s time for these top oil company CEOs to look Americans in the face and tell them why they can’t support new solutions.”
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