Big Oil Enjoying HUGE Profits
From: The Story of Stuff Project
While Americans were reckoning with sky-high gas prices at the pump last year, ExxonMobil reported on Tuesday that it made $56 billion in profits in 2022. That’s the most a Western oil company has ever earned and averages out to around $6.3 million an hour over the course of the year.
It’s not just Exxon. Other major oil companies such as Chevron and Shell are expected to report similar results in the coming weeks, pushing their combined profits to around $200 billion, according to the financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
The challenge facing human civilization when it comes to mitigating climate change is that baking this planet is insanely profitable. Just as we’re finding how difficult it is to remove the drug cartels from Mexico, $56 billion carries a level of political power that is hard to describe.
