Revealed: oil sector’s ‘staggering’ $3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years

Posted on by under education, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, History, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Worried about the cost of fuel? Concerned about the now-obvious effects of climate change? There is one small group of people who are profiting from both, while emptying our wallets AND most importantly, destroying our environment. Our friend PeNdantry over at Wibble sums it up well. Thanks, PeNdantry!

Wibble

Vast sums provide power to ‘buy every politician’ and delay action on climate crisis, says expert

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd
under guardiansyndication Open Licence Terms

The oil and gas industry has delivered $2.8bn (£2.3bn) a day in pure profit for the last 50 years.

The vast total captured by petrostates and fossil fuel companies since 1970 is $52tn, providing the power to “buy every politician, every system” and delay action on the climate crisis, says Prof Aviel Verbruggen. The huge profits were inflated by cartels of countries artificially restricting supply.

The oil and gas industry has delivered $1tn in profit a year on average – Guardian graphic. Source: Aviel Verbruggen, University of Antwerp

Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have driven the climate crisis and contributed to worsening extreme weather, including the current heatwaves hitting the UK and many other Northern hemisphere countries. Oil companies have

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28 thoughts on “Revealed: oil sector’s ‘staggering’ $3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years”

  1. Jill, will the fossil fuel industry says climate change scientists are biased and in it for the money, the decimal placement the scientists are dealing with in grants is at a much lower monetary level. The fossil fuel industry is by far the most subsidized industry ever. When politicians say “we should not be picking winners and losers” when folks want to subsidize solar and wind, the answer is you’ve been picking winners and losers for over 150 years. Keith

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    • You are so right about that, my friend. The fossil fuel industry has received the most benefit of any and … AND have been the ones to publish false information time and time again, lying to government and the public. And today? As we pay higher prices for fuel to heat/cool our homes and drive our cars, the oil industry is seeing record high profits. Why do we put up with this? Because we allow our members of Congress to be bought … thanks in large part to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizens United v FEC. We are making some progress on renewable energy, but it’s an uphill battle because the fossil fuel companies, aided and abetted by Congress, throw up roadblocks at every turn.

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      • Jill, America could be energy independent and entirely renewable if we just set the process in motion. As oil magnate T. Boone Pickens once said, the future of energy in America is wind. Let state clearly – this was an oil guy saying this ten years ago. He discounted solar, but those two plus tidal, river, geothermal, and water can go a long way. The basic question is why would we not go down the path of easier energy acquisition, less water use, less transportation costs and risk and smaller impact on the environment and maintenance? We have had two horrible coal ash spills from plants that have been shuttered Coal is the gift that keeps on giving, in a negative way. Think about that. Keith

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        • Indeed we could! But when the fossil fuel magnates have as much power as they do, it slows the process … slows it to a crawl sometimes. Why, indeed, would we not go down the path of easier, not to mention cleaner, energy? Because a very small group of people have most of the money in this nation and money = power. Because our members of Congress are for sale (some of them, at least) and will vote against their own grandchildren to add to their investment portfolios. Sigh. Yes, I lived in a coal-mining community for the 15 years I was married and have seen what it can do. Oil spills or pipeline accidents are equally destructive. But remember … windmills can cause impotence!!! 😱 (Sorry, I just had to add a bit of dark humour!)

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          • Jill, people should laugh out loud at comments made about those kinds of comments about windmills. As for coal miners, they have been lied to for years to get them to go down in a hole and mine. As for the last ten years, legislators from coal states could have promoted clean energy jobs to these folks and could have created new industries. Instead, they just did more of the same. Keith

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            • I agree … it’s laugh-worthy, which is why I even mentioned it. Does ol’ Tucker C not realize what a joke he is? Indeed, the coal miners have been lied to, and when there was a chance, a program to retrain them to work in the renewable energy field, along came Donald Trump and killed it. Sigh.

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  2. May they be the first to go! Everyone who says it makes no difference should visit some of the coal strip mining sites in Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania. Yeah, they finally had to plant trees, grass, make swimming lakes stocked with fish. They couldn’t rebuild the mountain tops that once rose high enough to embrace the clouds and kiss the sun though. Too late already if you ask me!

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      • I wish they had a hate button on these comments because I’ve seen it also. Went to a meeting in Ashland, Kentucky and took a few side trips to see some of the sights. It was terrible to see the tops of the mountains gone. We had a lot of STRIP mining here until the coal ran out.

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        • Yeah, WP should do like Facebook has done, with a variety of emoticons to let the author know you read, but either liked, disliked, was saddened/angered, etc. Some of my posts are for sure hard to ‘like’, but I do appreciate knowing when people have read them. Indeed, strip mining is destructive to the environment, but then so are oil spills in the ocean and on land, and fracking and … well, just about anything and everything associated with the processing of fossil fuels. So now, we have the technology to utilize natural resources such as the sun, water and wind, but nooooooooo … the wealthy coal and oil barons cannot be deprived of their profit, don’t you know! Destroy the damn planet so those dudes can be billionaires! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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          • Yep! I think at one time they were considering different types of energy to power cars but most of that fell through. It would have been less expensive than gasoline, cleaner, quieter and a bit slower which would possibly lower the death rate from speed related accidents but there was that money thing. The fossil fuel barons would lose a few dollars from the billions they get each year. What the heck does anyone do with that much money? The only thing they can’t buy is the most important to me — happiness!

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            • Well, electric cars are gaining momentum and I do think they are the wave of the future … if, in fact, humans are to have a future. Frankly, I’m not betting on humans lasting past the end of this century! As for the money … good question and one that I’ve asked more than a few times. To me … the only purpose I think is worthy is using it to help people, to house the homeless, feed the poor, improve education, and take care of the planet and ALL its inhabitants. Happiness … it’s a fleeting thing … I learned long ago to settle for being content, I have a home, enough money to pay the bills and buy food and donate to a few worthwhile causes, so I have no need for more material things. My family and friends keep me from coming completely unglued, and that’ll do for me.

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              • I have everything I need except the home, but I think it is taken care of. Wish I could move there now but I guess I’ll have to wait and see if my dear daughter really comes through. Most of my family still gets angry with me because I had money after my divorce but didn’t like that. Guess what I didn’t like the most was that I had been married to a millionaire and didn’t know it until the divorce. He gave me a grand total of $50 a week for groceries and clothes and told me if I was any kind of a woman I would make that work. Being a great woman I managed by picking his pocket when I needed more than bread and milk at the grocery. It will work out eventually even though a few management people here are “reminding” me every day that I have to be out by the 31st. One more time and I’m going to scream at them so loud and so long they will suffer some kind of permanent damage!
                Sorry — just very frustrated with them at the moment. Love ya my friend!

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                • I had no idea you were married to a rich man! What a cheapskate! I’d have been tempted to slip some arsenic into his morning coffee! (Just kidding) When will you know if your daughter is going to come through on her offer? Is there any reason to think she might not? Yes, I’m sure it’s annoying to be constantly reminded … ‘twould serve them right if you threw a vase or something at them! Love you too, dear friend! Keep me posted, please. I care … a lot.

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                    • Would you believe I totally forgot>? The email, not the baby shower. Great shower but the poor baby is being saddled with a couple of dozen quilts, mostly the same size, and twice as many outfits all the same size. He will be cold and nude after a couple of days without ever getting to use most of the things. At least he will probably go through all of the dozens of diapers if I remember correctly. He will at least be a very good looking kid if the way his parents look has anything to do with it.

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                    • Ha ha … YES, I would believe, because I would have done the exact same!!! I’m so glad you enjoyed the shower. Yes, I’ve long thought it was ridiculous for everyone to buy a newborn a dozen cute little outfits that the kid could care less about, and then in 2-3 months, mom ‘n dad have to dig into their pockets for a whole new wardrobe. The quilts, on the other hand, will last a lifetime! I still have a quilt that my mother-in-law made for my first child, Chris, when she was born in 1970. Chris and I both cherish that beautiful quilt!

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                    • I always loved the quilts my grandmother made for us and wish I could be cherishing the last one she made. Unfortunately my sister is cherishing that one so I have to make my own now. That’s okay though. Not everyone can make a quilt. Check that! Making them is easy. Not everyone wants to spend that much time on something they can buy in any store in the country for less money than making one would cost. you just have to know how to thread a needle to make a quilt!

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                    • You’re right … not everyone can quilt! My mother-in-law tried to teach me, but I didn’t have the patience for it. I can crochet or knit, but quilting is too time-consuming, which is the very thing that makes it so valuable … the time and love that are put into each one. I’ve never even been tempted, though, to purchase a ‘store-bought’ quilt! It wouldn’t be the same!

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                    • You are right there. I did purchase a store bought one once when I thought I needed one in a hurry. It fell apart within a year and just never meant much to any of us. It became the dog’s bed. I think the thing I love about quilting is the time it takes. For me it’s very relaxing to sit at night under the quilt while quilting it. Once I used a hoop but now I pin the layers together, start in the middle and work my way out, all while snuggling under the very one I’m working on. Only used the frame one time when I joined a quilting bee at church while making quilts for the parish picnic prizes. I lagged behind the others and just never had the cozy feeling I enjoy when they are in my lap the entire time.

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                    • My mother-in-law had 5 sisters, all of whom lived nearby, so she and her sisters would get together, usually once a week, and work on a quilt together. She enjoyed both the process of making the quilt, and also the camaraderie.

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  3. This folks is who runs the world. Not republicans, not democrats. They are simply bought and paid for useful tools and idiots. It’s like a pyramid scheme…the trump cult, the apathetic and others too at the bottom, manipulating magnificently to keep voting them in office. And the politicians, who have no regard for selling out their own souls, sacrificing their own families and generations maybe to come

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    • Yes, my friend, this is who sits behind the curtain pulling the levers of power. It matters not that the air is already becoming unbreathable, that the west coast fires are once again out of control, that the ice caps are melting and shorelines disappearing, that species are becoming extinct … as long as they can pocket billions of dollars and laugh at us peons while they look at their investment portfolios with smug, self-satisfied smiles on their ugly mugs. Sigh.

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  4. Pingback: Revealed: oil sector’s ‘staggering’ $3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

    • Yes, that was what threw me for a loop. I am hoping that people will open their eyes and stop blaming all the wrong people for both gas prices and climate change! Much of what is happening to our environment lies squarely at the feet of the fossil fuel industries! No, my friend, apparently they don’t believe the warnings … either that, or they don’t give a tinker’s damn about their own grandchildren. Sigh.

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