Finally, we can feel good that the oil companies made a HUGE profit in the second quarter. Their stock holders won’t have to take small dividends. I heard on television sometime last week that all oil storage facilities in the U.S. were full!! Not since the infamous John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil company has there been a bigger ripoff of the American public.

Exxon has estimated expenditure for this year’s exploration and production opportunities at $20 billion. I wonder if a little bit of this couldn’t be used for another gas refinery without the government having to give massive incentives?!

A certain political party is against offshore drilling and Clinton vetoed drilling in ANWR. Supposedly, we could get enough oil in these areas to last 15 to 20 years. It seems to me that this would give us an opportunity to come up with alternative energy sources. Several countries have most of their electrical needs met with nuclear power plants. We could also have this if barriers raised were removed and incentives were given. I would think that California, with all their energy problems, could manage to have a nuclear power plant built, perhaps where they have set aside land for endangered tortoises and rats.

I know that the VIPs such as Walter Cronkite, John Kerry, Chapaquitic Kennedy, and others were so welcoming for the windfarms to be built off the coast of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. I don’t know why they haven’t been successful in getting this completed (eye sore maybe?).

How must a family with both parents working, and jobs of low income just to get by, not be bitter about what they have to pay for gas, when the CEOs of the oil companies are grinning like the cat that swallowed the canary? What about young carpentry contractors, painting contractors, plumbing contractors, air conditioning and heating contractors having huge fuel bills that trickle down to the consumer, ultimately killing their profits because hesitation of marginal labor increases - just to keep up with the ‘big guys’? Then of course you have the man who tied up everything he had to get an over-the-road semi, and expected to pay for the rig and have money to care for his family. Now, because of fuel prices, he can’t care for his family and will probably lose his rig. Way to go oil companies - hang in there - you will make it!