Big Oil

Re "Most in U.S. worried about sea level rise," March 30 Building sea walls and other measures to protect coastal developments address the symptoms of climate change, not the cause. We need to support legislation to counteract global warming, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) Climate Protection Act of 2013. Insurance companies should think twice about offering storm insurance for coastal areas; or if they do, the premiums should be comparable to what Californians have to pay for earthquake insurance.

Thanks to some whistle-blowers and a consumer watchdog group--the Project on Government Oversight (POGO)--Washington has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars from big oil companies for underpayment of royalties on oil pumped from federal land. Surely anyone concerned about the shortchanging of taxpayers should rejoice.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. posted a slight increase in first-quarter profit on higher oil prices and record production as energy giants Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell reported lower net income. Westwood-based Occidental, the fourth-largest U.S. oil company, said it generated net income of $1.56 billion in the first quarter, or $1.92 a share, up from $1.55 billion, or $1.90, in the same quarter of 2011. Revenue jumped to $6.27 billion from $5.73 billion a year earlier. Occidental Chief Executive Stephen I. Chazen said production rose to the equivalent of 755,000 barrels of oil a day, "the highest in Occidental's history," from 730,000 barrels a day in the first quarter of 2011.

Cartoons about the high price of gas. Cartoons about U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Cartoons about the environmental effects of opening Alaska and the ocean to oil drilling. Where have we seen this stuff before? Here's a hint: People wore Earth shoes to Earth Day, and a global cartel gave the Carter administration a cardiac.

Hodel's article about why we should love his offshore drilling platforms sounds like it was written by an oil company's public relations department. It has always amazed me how Ronald Reagan and his people have jumped to please every whim of the oil industry. Our best protection from both oil "crises" and inflation is fuel conservation. The strides we have made in reducing oil consumption, through fuel-efficient cars, airliners, appliances, and building insulation, have resulted in lower demand, hence lower oil prices, and hence lower inflation.

WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked an effort to end billions of dollars in tax breaks for the oil industry, brushing aside President Obama's argument that the five big oil companies were doing "just fine" while consumers were struggling with painfully high gasoline prices. The measure to kill the industry tax preferences failed on a 51-47 procedural vote Thursday. It needed 60 votes to overcome a Republican-led filibuster that was supported by some Democrats from oil-rich states.

-- More than a week into their quest to stop the oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico from a damaged BP well, several dozen of the brightest minds in the engineering world gathered to watch a 100-ton failure unfold in slow motion. The engineers packed into a repurposed research center dubbed the Hive, which houses a dozen video screens and, most days, about as many scientists. Beside a bustling freeway, in a drab Houston office park bedecked with nearly every name in Big Oil, BP had launched a 21st century version of "Apollo 13."