RPSEA Go Bye-Bye

I try to keep obscenity off this blog because I believe that there is a time and a place for obscenity. But what I am going to say right now is just as obscene as a Dick Cheney tirade on the House floor: ExxonMobil posted a profit of 39.5 Billion dollars in 2006.
That’s the largest yearly profit by a single corporation in the history of . . . well . . . history. But wait, there’s more. What is the second largest yearly profit? ExxonMobil’s 2005 profits of 36.13 billion dollars. In two years, their net profit totals over 75 billion dollars.

That’s $75,152 per minute.

ExxonMobil could pay the yearly salaries of two new teachers with one minute of their profits.

Time for Congress to consider a windfall profits tax.

But in an era when Congress is allocating OUR royalty money toward Ultra Deepwater exploration and production research, you know this isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Or is it?

What about the Oil Sense Bill introduced by Barak Obama in the first 100 hours of the new Democratic majority? The Oil Sense Act. You have to like this one:

Congress finds that--
(1) record highs in oil and natural gas prices have resulted in record profits for oil and natural gas producers and refiners;
(2) oil prices are projected to remain high for the foreseeable future;
(3) the Department of the Interior estimates that as much as $66,000,000,000 worth of oil and natural gas taken from the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico over the next 5 years will be exempt from Government royalty payments, which could amount to the Government losing an estimated $7,000,000,000 to $9,500,000,000 based on anticipated production and current price projections for oil and gas, according to an analysis in the 5-year budget plan of the Department of the Interior;
(4) the chief executive officers of the top 5 oil companies stated at a November 9, 2005, joint hearing of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resource of the Senate and the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate that their companies did not need the Federal tax incentives provided in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801 et seq.);
(5) the Statement of Administration Policy of June 14, 2005, on the energy bill that would become the Energy Policy Act of 2005 states, `The President believes that additional taxpayer subsidies for oil -and-gas exploration are unwarranted in today's price environment, and urges the Senate to eliminate the Federal oil -and-gas subsidies and other exploration incentives contained in the bill.'; and
(6) incentives for the energy industry should be focused on the development of renewable energy resources in the United States that will also promote, jobs, investment, innovation, and economic development in rural, agriculture-dependent areas.

The Oil Sense Act would repeal certain provisions of the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

In a really small nutshell, The Oil Sense act operates in several areas

Royalties: No more royalty relief or royalty suspension. Oil companies pay their royalties and pay them on time.
Oil an Gas Leases in Federal territories: Renegotiation of leases.
Tax Incentives: Repeal of tax incentives like an incentive to drill deep wells in shallow water (obscene profits should be enough incentive). There are others.

And . . . ready?

Repeal of Subtitle J of title IX of the Energy Policy Act. This relates “to ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural gas and other petroleum resources.”

What’s that? What does it mean?

Well for one thing, it means RPSEA go bye-bye.