The Daily Background

Exxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday — $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year — as the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and natural-gas prices and solid demand for refined products.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Exxon shares rose, but some lawmakers expressed outrage at the industry’s latest profit surge, renewing calls for a windfall profits tax and increased investment in alternative fuels.

That was AP yesterday. Reuters today:

Officials from six major oil companies have refused to testify this week at a Senate hearing looking into whether oil industry mergers in recent years have made gasoline more expensive at the pump.

Baddddd. Hopefully Dems will be on this.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who sharply criticized oil executives appearing before Congress in November, on Friday called on the Bush administration and the Federal Trade Commission to “put an end to gouging.” She then suggested that FTC stood for “Friend to Chevron.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who proposed an extra tax on oil company profits in November, said Monday that “the federal government has a responsibility to make sure that these companies continue to innovate instead of just profiting from the status quo.”

You go, Senator Boxer!

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