September 22, 2024
Letter

Full service, indeed

I had to chuckle when I read Tom Sawyer’s list of gasoline stations in Bangor (BDN letter, June 6) that provide “full service.” I think we have been getting the full service from the oil companies for a long time. According to a public citizen analysis, oil companies are collecting record profits while the consumers get the full service at the pumps. In the first three months of this year, profits for the five largest oil companies operating in this country rose nearly 40 percent over the same period last year.

Exxon-Mobil, Chevron-Texaco, BP Amoco-Arco, Phillips-Tosco and Marathon control more than two-fifths of domestic production, nearly half of the domestic refining, and more than three-fifths of the domestic retail market. These top five oil companies are so big they produce more oil than Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Yemen combined.

There is no petroleum crisis, so drilling for oil in the Arctic and in other wilderness areas will do nothing for the consumer. We already drill in Alaska and that oil goes to Japan. What we have here is the predictable result of having a monopoly market. These companies control the prices.

George W. Bush said he rejected the Kyoto Treaty (re: Global Warming Agreement) because it would not be in the best interests of the American people. Actually his rejection was a payback to one of his biggest backer’s, Exxon-Mobil, which gave $1.2 million to his presidential campaign.

If Exxon-Mobil had a lease on the sun, we would all have to pay for sunshine. If Bush listens only to the big oil companies, then we have to make the big oil corporations listen to us. Stop global warming, and boycott Exxon-Mobil.

Gerald Oleson

Bangor


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