Bush defends oil industries obscene profits, gee wonder why?

[Grimmlok]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - President Bush defended the huge profits of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) Wednesday, saying they are simply the result of the marketplace and that consumers socked with soaring energy costs should not expect price breaks.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Bush also addressed oil's future, offering a more ambitious hope than in his State of the Union speech for cutting imports from the volatile Mideast.

However, he said his oft-stated goal of a Palestinian state in the region cannot be realized if a Hamas-led government refuses to renounce its desire to destroy Israel.

Bush, a former Texas oilman, said of oil costs, "I think that basically the price is determined by the marketplace and that's the way it should be."

"I believe in a relatively quick period of time, within my lifetime, we'll be able to reduce if not end dependence on Middle Eastern oil by this new technology" of converting corn, wood, grasses and other products into ethanol, he said.

In his address Tuesday night, Bush had set a goal of reducing the nation's Mideast oil imports by 75 percent by 2025.

With three years left in his second term, Bush declined to say what - if any - role he would take in the selection of a Republican candidate to succeed him in the 2008 presidential race. But he accepted the proposition that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would not be a contender.

"I think you need to take her at her word that she's not running," Bush said in a conversation on Air Force One as he flew to Tennessee for a speech.

"My political focus is on 2006," said Bush, who plans a major campaign role this year in the midterm congressional elections. "To the extent that I am thinking politics, it is to retain the (Republican) leadership of the House and the Senate."

Early this week, Exxon reported record profits of $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year - the largest of any U.S. company. While some politicians raised furious objections, Bush had a different reaction.

"There is a marketplace in American society," he said.

"There's also a responsibility for energy companies to continue to invest and improve the ways that the American people can get energy," he said. "I would very much hope that Exxon would participate in the development of a pipeline out of Alaska, for example, in order to make sure there's more natural gas available for families and small business owners so the economy will grow."

Bush said his goal is to diversify away from a "a hydrocarbon society. I meant what I said last night, that America's addiction to oil is bad for this country. In order to remain competitive we've got to use technology to diversify away from dependence upon oil."

"I am told we are close to significant breakthroughs when it comes to the production of ethanol ... and that within six years the development of technology will be able to produce energy on a competitive basis," he said.

[Glasgow53]

You have to know that Bush has something up his sleeve that will insure that his oil buddies will still come out ahead. And I am sick of them saying that the reason oil is so high is because of the marketplace. Yes, people pay the extreme rates for gas and oil, because what choice do they have? We don't have much of a public transportation system. If you drive, you have to buy gas and heat your house with oil.

[ourmaninBusan]

Bush, a former Texas oilman, said of oil costs, "I think that basically
the price is determined by the marketplace and that's the way it should be."

Whenever I think of the marketplace, I think of a PBS show on the
old streetcars in some famous cities. They were bought at auction
by representatives of GM and Ford...and turned into scrap, so that
people would have to buy more cars. That's the marketplace --
whoever has the will makes the rules.

That's why I would like nothing better than to see one (or more)
of the Big Three automakers go completely belly-up.

[Glasgow53]

Remember those old Singer sewing machines? The black ones with the painted flowers on them? They were so well made they wouldn't die. The Singer store in New Haven used to take them in as trade on new machines and then take them into the basement and bash them up with sledgehammers because they were made better than the new ones they were pushing on people. Marketplace indeed.