Big Oil defends in front of angry senate

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All I can say about this hearing is: It's about time.

The senators are cited in the article as having a heated debate with the Oil executives, frequently pushing the conversation back to getting an answer for high gas prices and record profits.

The company leaders tried to shift attention from motorists' anger over $4-a-gallon gasoline to a debate over new areas for drilling.

But senators at the Judiciary Committee hearing weren't having any of that. They wanted to press the executives about public anguish over paying $60 or more to fill up a car's gas tank.

At the same time, Big Oil continued to speak about supply-and-demand issues that involved a problem with drilling for oil:

The executives, appearing under oath, cited tight global supplies with scant spare production capacity and the fact that large areas of land and offshore waters remain offlimits to drilling. And they said they're worried Congress was talking of requiring the five companies to pay more taxes.

Excuse me while I laugh - along with the senate. It's been made abundantly clear, even through their cited market economy, that it is not the sole reason the cost is so high. If oil was decreasing in supply, then so, too, would their profits. However, such is not the case - and the senate pointed this fact out:

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., noting that Exxon's profits had nearly quadrupled from $11.5 billion in 2002, said he had heard nothing from the oilmen that would explain "why profits have gone up so high when the consumer is suffering so much."

Ultimately, this will likely accomplish very little in the wake of massive profits. However, what it will do is start the ball rolling on alternative fuels with government support if it meets two conditions. 1: The Oil companies continue to make record profits (likely for the next while), and 2: the government is smart enough to realize that an alternative fuel could spark their economy back (imagine the power that will come from being the first country to successfully implement alternative fuel sources in personal transportation devices?).