Political Quotes

“If I could just point out, picking up on Senator Udall's point, in recent years we have seen, as everybody in America knows--not only are we paying outrageously high prices at the pump, but we are seeing oil companies making huge profits. My recollection is that in the last 10 years the oil companies have made about $1 trillion in profits. ExxonMobil has made more money than any corporation in history. Yet, over the last 10 years, there have been examples, there have been cases in a given year where a major oil company--ExxonMobil being one--made huge profits, billions in profits, and ended up paying zero in Federal income taxes and, in fact, got a rebate. So you have this absurd situation where hugely profitable oil companies are paying nothing in taxes, and some of us think that does not make any sense at all. We think they should pay their fair share and that to a significant degree that money should go into sustainable energy so that we can break our addiction to oil.”