ExxonMobil CEO Demands End To Ethanol Subsidies - Det. Free Press

[hatrack]

Exxon Mobil Corp., after posting a record $36.1 billion in profit last year from surging oil prices, said the United States should end 28 years of subsidies for a competing fuel made from corn because the subsidies benefit domestic growers.

"We've never been a supporter of subsidies under any conditions because they distort market signals," chairman and Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said in a New York interview Tuesday. "What the government has done is stick a filter between the signals of the market and consumers. The fact that the subsidies exist shows it's not a viable alternative."

Tillerson rejected President George W. Bush's call for increased government aid for ethanol, a form of grain alcohol that's blended into about one-third of U.S. gasoline. Surging energy prices helped Exxon to the most profitable year ever for a U.S. company. Tillerson's comments drew the ire of corn and ethanol producers.

"In the face of pornographic profits being made by oil companies and the reality of higher gas prices this year, it is outrageous for an executive for big oil to actually suggest getting rid of the tax credit for ethanol," said Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol in Sioux Falls, S.D.

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(emphasis added)

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060309/BUSINESS07/603090489/1020/BUSINESS

But royalty-free drilling from the Feds? Hey, that's TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!

:eyes:

[phantom power]

1. Right cheeky, isn't he?

[phantom power]

2. I wonder...

if we turned all alternative-energy subsidies into tax-breaks, would it shut Rex and his buddies up?

[htuttle]

3. Okay, why don't we remove the US military protection of oil assets

Just bring 'em all home from all over the world, stop subsidizing friendly tyrants in oil producing countries with billions in cash and weapons, and charge realistic royalties for drilling on public land. And we can start charging penalties for environmental damage commensurate to what they actually cost, instead of socializing all of them.

Then we'll really see how competitive ethanol is...

[phantom power]

But... that's CRAZY talk. The terrorists would win. Tinkerbell would die.

Benji would stay lost forever...

[Strelnikov_]

4. Considering The US Military Is Now Essentially An Oil Protection Service

(with a growing sideline in Globalization), I agree. Let's end all subsidies, including all military expenditures related to 'protecting' oil sheiks and offshore globalist/corporatist operations.