Good thing they didn't have to make much of a payout for Valdez!

Evil fuckers!

Ugh, isn't that something. Yet they can't do anything about rising gas prices, huh?

Hey that's the price of the light rail expansion (not counting finance, operations, etc.)--

Coincidence?

Excuse me? Exxon's tax bill is also in the billions. A company the size of Exxon needs large capital to invest in development. How come you didn't call them evil during the oil bust of the seventies? If you think making a profit is evil, please do us a favor and move to Havana.

I don't have a motor vehicle of any kind, but that makes me want to go out and buy a few gallons of gas just to make a contribution!

What was their profit margin? Only fools look at absolute numbers to form an opinion.

Hilariously, Exxon managed to have the best quarter of any company in US history while still failing to meet analyst expectations.

On revenues of $138B, a whopping 8% return.

@5,

Yes, well wouldn't it be nice if they actually put money into development, instead of crying to Congress about how they can't afford it without tax breaks and then lining their pockets with the proceeds of those tax breaks.

Thanks for the insightful, helpful commentary, Charles. Not.

@10, thats an indictment of our political process and rent seeking behavior.

So what? Exxon sells a lot of stuff and makes a bit of profit. Also from that article: "Revenue rose 40 percent, to $138.1 billion, from $98.4 billion"

ExxonMobile's makes a 10% net profit. And that's considered outrageous?

If that's the case, we should all stop listening to our iPods, now! Apple's profit margins are well above ExxonMobil's, at nearly 20%?

And where's the umbrage about Microsoft--where the net profits stand at 30% of sales, or triple that of ExxonMobile?

If you all want to weirdly tie profit margins to your consumption guilt, there are other better companies to take it out on. Seriously.

What should be noted by anyone reporting on this is that their profit margin is still very small. But because their revenues are so huge (partly because of the price of oil) their profits are huge, too.

Not that I feel good about defending Exxon or anything.

Profit margin on WHAT? After they pay record amounts to the CEO and top execs? After they deduct - yes, they do - LOBBYING expenses to drive America down the WRONG path?

And don't forget all the other "costs".

Does that mean public television stations can stop all those annoying fund drives for a while?

regardless of any explanation, their income rose while gas prices skyrocketed, contributing to our current economic woes. they are profiting more while we are paying more. they could choose to make the same, or even a little more. they have instead chosen to record the highest-ever increase.

@13 - Except Apple and Microsoft's products can more easily be considered "luxury items". Exxon's products are much closer to what should be considered a "public utility".

Not to turn this into an argument about our lack of infrastructure, mass transit, and affordable housing in urban cores, but people buy gas because they have to.

Without gas, our society grinds to a halt. Without iPod's and X-Box's, I think we'd manage to survive somehow.

And, I agree with @17. Even with a fixed margin of 8%, 10%, or whatever it is, it's a windfall for Exxon when the price of oil more than doubles, as it has in the last few months.

Exxon Mobil is a publicly traded company. Millions of Americans own Exxon Mobil shares in their retirement portfolios. I'm glad they're making lots of money.(both the share holders and the ceo's)

Heck, I own Exxon Mobil thru my Vanguard Energy mutual fund ... and used to own them via direct shares (something like 600 as I recall, bought them after they got rid of racist board members, sold them later for a killing).

But you're still getting ripped off. And you're still subsidizing them more than wind, solar, or other energy companies.

That margin argument is idiotic.

WALMART operates on paper-thin margins.

VOLUME. Duh.