Free Republic

Bill O'Reilly of Fox TV concluded: "My contention is the oil companies don't have to double their profits. They can maybe make them two-fifths (40 percent). Take a little less for the good of the nation." Exxon-Mobil's recent profit margin was up to nearly 9 percent of sales. Suppose they tried to cut that to a nickel out of every dollar by offering to sell crude oil for $3 a barrel less than the going price on the Chicago mercantile exchange. Refiners around the world would instantly commit to buying every drop. By the next day, the world price of...

In the latest sign of Republican worry about high energy prices, the head of the Senate Finance Committee [Sen. Charles Grassley, R-IA] said on Tuesday he wants large oil companies to donate 10 percent of their record profits to help poor Americans pay winter heating bills. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he sent a letter to oil companies to "embarrass" them into contributing to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Last year, the program spent $2.2 billion to help poor and elderly Americans pay their winter heating bills. Democrats say...