Steven Holt: “The gentleman used the term ``trifecta.'' It's a curious selection of words because, indeed, you could see the oil…”

“The gentleman used the term ``trifecta.'' It's a curious selection of words because, indeed, you could see the oil companies right now lining up at the ticket window to cash in their trifecta winnings if this goes forward. The oil companies are currently sitting on 60 million acres of public land onshore and offshore in which they are not producing. The oil industry is sitting on more than 11.5 billion barrels of oil, nearly as much as they could ever get from drilling up and down the east coast and the west coast. This is where they should be directing their attention, but instead, where are they directing their attention as they bring in profits that for this year looked to be something like $100 billion? They are using those profits not to provide more resources for the American people but to buy back stock. Exxon, which had about a $10 billion profit in the first quarter of this year, just the first three months, used most of its money, more than half of it, to buy back stock. So it is curious that my colleague used the phrase ``trifecta'' because, indeed, this is a bonanza, a big winning ticket for the Big Oil companies. I reserve the balance of my time.”