“Where is your corporate conscience?”

As oil climbed to a humungous record of $135 a barrel, yesterday US senators once again lined up Big Oil’s biggest executives and pummeled them with questions.
“Where is the corporate conscience?” Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies, who have earned a whopping $36 billion during the first three months of this year.

When asked about the obscene profits, the oil executives said one reason was areas remained off-limits, and then challenged lawmakers to open more areas to drilling.
“If the nation set a goal of increasing domestic production by 2 (million) to 3 million barrels a day by opening up new sources of exploration and production, we could demonstrate to the world that we are in control of our own destiny,” Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister said.
The trouble is their arguments do not cut the mustard. “Not a single suggestion came from the oil executives in the Senate today that will lower gas prices” said Steve Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International. “There’s a reason for that, which is that the only answer is one they don’t want to discuss – an urgent transition to renewable energy.”
“We could drill every last inch of Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, and our coasts and it would barely make a dent in supply or prices,” Kretzmann continued. “Congress needs to stop this political theater and get serious about the transition to renewable forms of energy. So far, they’re continuing to lavish the industry with billions in subsidies, while receiving millions from the industry in campaign contributions. We need a Separation of Oil and State in this country, and until we get one, the American people will continue to feel the pain.”