Sen Schumer announces that CEOs of major oil companies will be called to testify before Congress.

[zuul]

Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer

Instead of lowering gas prices, Big Oil companies are using their soaring profits to reward their shareholders with stock buybacks. That is wrong. Today, I’m announcing that we will be calling the CEOs of major oil companies to testify before Congress.


2:49 PM · Mar 16, 2022

Link to tweet

[2naSalit]

1. K&R

[dweller]

2. Goody

Our own oilygarchs time has come



✌🏻

[SheltieLover]

4. I certainly hope so!

[SheltieLover]

3. Good!

[maxrandb]

5. Put this down as example 5,456,675 of things that would NEVER happen

with Retrumplicans in charge.

[RKP5637]

6. Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[Brainfodder]

7. Another "Try to embarrass a CEO" Tour?

They have to by law do whatever it takes to make $ for stock holders, stock holders who often times just own stock and have no real work into the company, but they often get paid the most?

TIFU!

The imbalance in pay is why a lot of people are upset and some don't want to give great effort as a result should not be so surprising?

100M a year is $50,000 per hour for 2000 hours.

[ForgedCrank]

30. What line

is that? I don't see any law that was broken, and they are doing what companies do. Things weren't so great for them the past 6-8 years comparatively speaking.
I don't necessarily like what they are doing because it affects the economy in a very negative way, but I don't think I can support this sort of thing with government getting involved in the business dealings of private companies. Laws are what congress can do, not demanding owners show up for their caning and stoning when we don't agree with them. That's not how this should work at all, and it's a little scary to think anyone would support this sort of thing. That is one thing that is different between us and the Russians and Chinese.

[ForgedCrank]

36. Well if someone

believes they are actually breaking a law, I would support a law enforcement investigation into those accusation. Of course, I have not seen any evidence whatsoever of a crime here.
I most certainly do not support dragging private citizens into a congressional hearing just to wag fingers at them live on TV.
There is more than one political party, and ours won't be in charge forever. Something we always need to remember. I do not support politicians behaving in this manner, it is crossing lines that should not be crossed.

[Salviati]

53. And what's wrong with a little finger wagging anyway?

I believe that there is behavior that we should consider to be immoral, that we should not make illegal. There are things that we as a society want to discourage, but that we should not make laws against, because they would be impossible to enforce, or we wouldn't want to become the society we'd need to become in order to enforce them. In such cases if the offending behavior is seen as undesirable by a majority then shame and public pressure can be effective enforcement mechanisms, but for that to work, the offending party needs to be shamed in public.

[Disaffected]

38. Yes, and

one sees few tears of concern when oil prices are cratering and a lot of oil & gas companies and their ancillary support industries are losing large amounts of money or going bankrupt.

[Disaffected]

43. Look it up yourself and report back.

Surely you're joking that you have never heard of an O&G associated company that lost money or went bankrupt because of low oil/gas prices.....

[Disaffected]

55. Ya, I don't need no

research, I know!

Here's some for you:

'Big Oil incurred record loss in 2020'

https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/economics-markets/article/14197855/big-oil-incurred-record-loss-in-2020

And, how 'bout all the O & G associated companies such as drilling, testing and servicing plus a myriad of smaller independents that lost money or went belly up??

Gotta laugh indeed.

[Disaffected]

57. Nice moving the goal posts

there Bucko.

"When's the last year oil companies lost money?"

And, yeah, they and their accountants are all tax crooks as well....

[Justice matters.]

48. Seize their yacht, condos, and offshore bank accounts!

THAT would teach them not to abuse their freedumbs...

[WarGamer]

51. under what legal action?

Specific statute, please.

[Justice matters.]

60. Here:

Federal Price Gouging Enforcement Update

... the Department of Justice and other executive agencies acting under the Defense Production Act (the “DPA”), a law passed in 1950 in response to the Korean War which gives the president broad authority to manage domestic industrial affairs in the interest of “national defense.” While originally enacted in wartime and more commonly employed to regulate certain foreign investment into U.S. businesses, authority extends to the Executive Branch to act in response to national emergencies like COVID-19.

https://www.mindingyourbusinesslitigation.com/2020/07/federal-price-gouging-enforcement-update/

One could think harsh measures on these fat cats would be so unpopular for voters... /sarcasm

[WarGamer]

61. not applicable.

[wryter2000]

40. I see it as publicly embarrassing them for their greed

And letting the public know what’s going on so they know who to blame for the prices. Certainly, no one is going to press charges against the CEO’s.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

64. Umm companies can buyback

Thier own stock,becoming the shareholders.

https://www.claret.ca/publications/stock-buybacks-value-benefits-companies-buy-back-shares/

Let that swirl around in your mouth a bit before you spit it out.

[Karadeniz]

8. Please, Schumer, designate Katie Porter as the official interrogator and have the Senate submit

their questions to her...assuming you want to get anywhere!

[zuul]

9. Yes please!

[Tacan]

19. Katie Porter with her white board.

Televise on all major channels at prime time.

[Karadeniz]

46. Absolutely!!!! The fossils would blanch!!!

[Mr.Bill]

10. We've seen this act before.

More perjury that will never even be charged, much less prosecuted.

[RainCaster]

24. A few careful investments by oil firms towards re-election efforts...

... and all this will go away, just like it always does.

[Number9Dream]

11. It's called Price Gouging... why is everyone afraid to use the term?

[SergeStorms]

12. Good!

And don't allow them to filibuster with their "it's clean energy" bullshit.

Go after 'em, Democrats!

[calimary]

13. EXCELLENT!!!

Put ‘em in the hot seat. And then turn up the temperature.

[Hekate]

14. Thanks Sen Schumer!

[larwdem]

16. yes

I think TFG has something to do with it too.

[Cha]

17. Rt 💕TY

💙💛

[AllaN01Bear]

18. everything else in the economy is flat except for the energy sector . how many of u remember

the tarp hearings when big corps begged for money? now , gee i wonder why. maybe their super luxery yachts as well. we shall see. when these investigations are announced , they dissapear.

[orleans]

20. "do us all a favor & get @RepKatiePorter and her whiteboard in there to help out!!!"

Link to tweet

[BlueIdaho]

21. Let's regulate the price of oil and gas.

Fuck these tax dodgers..

[MichMan]

62. Yep, order them to sell gas a $1.00 per gallon or get thrown in jail

[PatrickforB]

22. I like Schumer a lot. He's a really good Sen. Maj. Leader.

If any of you have him as you Senator, can you call his staff (I will be calling my own Senators, for sure) and suggest we force changes in corporate charters to a stakeholder approach to corporate governance, rather than profits over people (shareholder primacy), which is what we have now. And which is why so many CEOs engage in sociopathic behavior. Shareholder primacy encourages that.

[The Mouth]

23. Can we make them draw straws and short straw gets hung?

Might get them in the right frame of mind

[Martin68]

25. Exploiting the Ukranian War by making huge windfall profits to the detriment of the nation.

[spanone]

26. Thank You Senator Schumer!

GIVE 'EM HELL

[themaguffin]

27. I' m less optimistic. It's easy for them to grill them instead of taking action

[marie999]

28. Don't the CEOs have a fiduciary duty to the corporations and the shareholders?

I know its greed, but isn't it a law?

[ProfessorGAC]

32. No, That's Badly Misused

They have a fiduciary interest to manage cash flow & capital in a way that serves the company's best interest.
They do not have a legal obligation to maximize profits by any means & under all circumstances.
For instance, borrowing money from a The Hartford line of credit to invest in bitcoin is likely a breach of fiduciary duty.
Taking that risk, with nearly zero control over the outcome, is not prudent & responsible financial behavior.
Holding the line on prices to maintain absolute margins, but not proportionally so, could easily be called both good corporate citizenship & good will to stakeholders known as consumers.
It's a misinterpretation on 90s B-School curriculum that there is a legal duty to maximize profits no matter what.
The laws say no such thing.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

65. What about corporate buy backs?

Suddenly the ceo is the shareholder ..

[ProfessorGAC]

67. That Would Be The Board

CEOs don't actually get control of the shares. By law, the shares are voted on by the whole board, which admittedly could be incestuous. And, no one person can release them for sale, and the approved offerings for sale are highly regulated.
And, while I see some value to maintaining substantial treasury stocks, I don't approve of the massive versions we've seen in the last several years.
It actually became a board priority in the 80s, especially in midsized corporations as a defense against corporate raiders & a hedge against arbitrage.
Lesser evil, so to speak.
But, it's clearly being abused in recent years, effectively done to reduce shares available for trading. Reducing supply to boost stock price. It's intention has morphed into getting bigger bonuses for the executives.

[rockfordfile]

66. Look these oil guys don't give a rat's ass about Americans. Americans are seeing that more and more

[ProfessorGAC]

29. Let Me Know When They Call...

...folks who manage the exchanges who have plunge protection mechanisms but, no braking system for unwarranted panic bidding. (Example: crude prices rising by nearly 25% over a potential 3% shortfall of supply, when the other 97% is running well under capacity.)
Yes, the refiners benefit from unjustifiable crude prices, and they benefit from rampant speculation (read as gambling) on refined cost. Yes, the instantly passing on windfall dollars to investors instead of spending capital on supply enhancements is worth a grilling. Yes, the fact that they ALL nearly did this is pretty suspicious. (Smells like collusion.)
But, the oil execs will simply state they don't control prices, and they'd be telling the truth. Not sure we'll either learn or change anything.
I think it more interesting to find out what it takes to rattle the speculative traders & the exchange managers.
If they're not part of this fact finding testimony, then the Senate is doing it wrong.

[Lonestarblue]

31. Time to make stock buybacks illegal again.

They were illegal through most of the 1900s until the Reagan administration made them legal again and opened the doors for stock manipulation and now enormous bonuses and wealth for corporate CEOs while workers’ pay remains essentially unchanged for decades.

[monkeyman1]

33. " ONLY IN AMERICA" !

[ClarkJonathanKent]

35. Schumer has done plenty of good but, how is this not just theater?

Is Schumer going to actually offer a critique of Capitalism? Is he going to propose a specific piece of legislation to actually prevent price gauging or exorbitant excess profits? Or is he just going to hope that public testimony will somehow magically result in oil CEOs feeling shame and then voluntarily reduce prices and profits?

[BlueCheeseAgain]

41. I really want to make them explain the rockets and feathers behavior of prices.

Why do gasoline prices go up like a rocket, and down like a feather?

[Emile]

44. Screw this, it is time to nationalize big oil.

[Fiendish Thingy]

47. Call them to the house so Katie Porter can give them the once over. Nt

[crickets]

68. 👆👆 I'm so for that.

I'd drop everything and pop the popcorn for it. Give her a whiteboard and Katie Porter can eviscerate them all.

[BigmanPigman]

49. Yeah, I LOVE this!

We MUST keep the Senate in the midterms.

[WarGamer]

50. How many will appear?

[tclambert]

52. Hey, do you thinn the CEOs will lie?

"No, we didn't know cigarettes are addictive! Honest."

[kacekwl]

59. That's great, I hope something comes of it.

Feet to fire.

[XanaDUer2]

63. I'm ok with this nt

[wanda4rafi]

69. Put Katie Porter in charge.

She will get them twisting in the wind faster than anyone.