Oil profits questioned

Apparently the only good companies in America are those which do not make money.

Under sometimes hostile questioning, the chief executives of five of the nation's biggest oil companies denied Wednesday that their industry was earning windfall profits and argued price gouging was not responsible for record earnings in the wake of Gulf Coast hurricanes.

But even as the executives of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP America and Shell Oil U.S.A. testified they were investing roughly the same amount as they earned in production facilities, senators from California suggested the companies were manipulating supplies to drive up gasoline prices even further.

California Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein questioned whether the oil companies were deliberately trying to boost gasoline prices in their state by not building new refineries or expanding existing ones.

I bet Roland Arnall can sympathize with Congress' distate for companies doing exactly what they're supposed to!