WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Lois Capps released the following statement today reacting to reports of Exxon Mobil’s second quarter earnings of $11.68 billion, the largest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation:

“These record profits are coming straight out of the pockets of hard working Americans, who continue to pay record high prices at the pump.  These companies are not only raking it in, but they’ve been using the vast majority of these record profits to buy back their stock instead of investing in renewable and alternative energy or otherwise helping out hard pressed consumers.   What’s particularly galling is that American taxpayers are actually subsidizing these giant oil and gas companies with lavish tax breaks that President Bush and Congressional Republicans have refused to repeal.  

“Yesterday, President Bush renewed his tired call for more drilling off our coasts.  The new wrinkle this time is that the President is now essentially asking the oil companies to tell us where they would like to drill next.  Apparently, the tens of millions of acres off our coasts and in publicly held lands where oil companies already can drill – but are choosing not to - just aren’t enough.  These record profit announcements, record high energy prices and insistence of the President to continue pushing more of the same failed strategy that got us here in the first place amply demonstrates the bankruptcy of the Bush Administration’s energy policies.  We need a new direction in energy policy and President Bush is simply incapable of delivering it.”

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Pictured above: (center) Congresswoman Capps meets with Central Coast firefighters to discuss emergency preparedness.