Exxon and Shell Announce Massive Profit Gains — All the More to Spend on Influence Peddling and Climate Denial #P2 #TCOT

FROM http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/07/28/281465/exxon-and-shell-announce-massive-profit-gains-all-the-more-to-spend-on-influence-peddling-and-climate-denial/

More oil-company earnings figures out today — the latest from Shell and Exxon.

Exxon reported a whopping $10.7 billion in profits, an increase of 41% from the same period last year. Overall, Exxon has earned over $20 billion in profits in just the first six months of the year. Not surprisingly, ExxonMobil is also one of the most politically engaged of the top five oil companies. A few key facts:

• Exxon is the top oil and gas contributor in 2011, giving over $384,000 already this year, with 95 percent of the contributions going to Republicans.
• Exxon has spent over $3 million on lobbying this year and has increased their lobbying expenditures by at least 25 percent from the first quarter to the second.
• ExxonMobil spent $5.7 billion—more than half of its first-quarter profit—to buy 69 million shares of stock in order to "reduce shares outstanding."
• Despite ranking in the top of the Fortune 500 list of company profits, ExxonMobil, along with other oil companies, continues to receive billions of dollars in tax breaks paid for by taxpayers.
• Exxon pays a lower effective tax rate than the average American. In the years spanning 2008 to 2010, Exxon paid an effective rate of 17.6 percent, nearly 16 percent below the average individual federal tax rate.
• ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson ranked in as one of the highest paid CEOs in 2010, earning over $21 million in direct compensation.

ExxonMobil is also well known for giving millions of dollars to climate deniers and industry front groups with the goal of creating doubt about global warming, attacking the integrity of climate science and scientists, and promoting a pro-corporate polluter agenda.

Royal Dutch Shell announced their 2011 second-quarter earnings, reporting profits of $8 billion, a 77% jump from the same period a year ago, bringing their total profits in the first six months of 2011 to $14.9 billion. Below is a quick look at Shell by the numbers:

• Shell has spent nearly $4 million on lobbying in 2011, making it one of the Top 20 Spenders of 2011, and the second biggest spender of the oil and gas industry.
• The oil and gas industry ranks as the fourth largest spender on lobbying in 2011, spending a combined total of nearly $40 million.
• The Big five oil companies, BP, Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell, made more than $900 billion in profits (figure in 2011 dollars) – almost a trillion dollars – over the past decade.
• Big oil tax loopholes, including oil industry specific tax breaks and unnecessary general provisions, will cost the federal treasury $40 billion over the next decade.