May, 02 2022, 02:12pm EDT
Exxon, Chevron Rake in Over $12b in First Three Months of 2022
High Consumer Prices Fuel Profits, Companies Spend Billions on Dividends and Stock Buybacks Benefiting Their Wealthy CEOs
WASHINGTON
Today, government watchdog Accountable.US responded to news that oil industry giants Exxon and Chevron raked in more than $12 billion in profits during the first three months of 2022, by pointing to high consumer gas prices and the billions each company spent on stock buybacks and dividends to benefit their wealthy executives rather than stabilizing prices for consumers.
"This year is shaping up to be even better than the last for oil giants like Exxon and Chevron. Unfortunately for consumers, good news for big oil bottom lines never seems to be good news for them," Jordan Schreiber, Director of Energy and Environment at Accountable.US. "Exxon and Chevron would rather take their billions in profits and pass them on to wealthy industry executives than do anything to stabilize gas prices for consumers."
Read the full Accountable.US report here.
Chevron:
- Chevron's net income in Q1 2022 was $6.3B. It made $4.879 billion more in Q1 2022 than the same time in 2021. [Chevron, press release, 04/29/22]
- Chevron paid $2.7B in dividends in Q1 2022 with $1B more than expected to be paid out during the year thanks to high oil and gas prices.
- Chevron bought back $1.3B in stock in Q1 2022 out of a record $10B potential stock buyback plan.
- Stock buybacks and dividend payouts benefit Chevron's CEO whose paycheck is heavily padded by company shares - 54% of Mike Wirth's $22.6M compensation in 2021 came from stocks.
- Exxon's net income in Q1 2022 was $5.75B. Its Q1 2022 net income is $2.954 billion higher than the same time in 2021, despite losing $3.4B by exiting its Russia operations. [ExxonMobil, press release, 04/29/22]
- Exxon began $30B in stock buybacks in 2022 (through 2023) thanks to its high profits, repurchasing $2.1B shares in the first three months of the year. This is a $20B increase from its estimate in December 2021.
- Exxon paid $3.76B in dividends in Q1 2022 -- stock buybacks and dividend payouts benefit the company's CEO whose paycheck is heavily padded by company shares -- 57% of Darren Woods's $23.6M compensation in 2021 came from stocks.
According to widely reported Accountable.US analysis, last year, top oil and gas companies announced an eye-popping $237 billion in profits. During the same period, executives from 28 of the top oil and gas companies made a combined $394 million in total compensation. The executives raked in, on average, $1.6 million more per person in 2021 than in 2020.
Accountable.US is a nonpartisan watchdog that exposes corruption in public life and holds government officials and corporate special interests accountable by bringing their influence and misconduct to light. In doing so, we make way for policies that advance the interests of all Americans, not just the rich and powerful.
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"It is important to remember that Dr. Carpenter did nothing wrong," said one legal expert. "Texas is trying to apply its laws extraterritorially."
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"Time for shield laws to hold strong," said one reproductive rights expert on Friday as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against an abortion provider in New York.
Paxton is suing Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine (ACT), for providing mifepristone and misoprostol to a 20-year-old resident of Collin County, Texas earlier this year.
ACT was established after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, with the intent of helping providers in "shielded states"—those with laws that provide legal protection to doctors who send abortion pills to patients in states that ban abortion, as Carpenter did.
New York passed a law in 2023 stipulating that state courts and officials will not cooperate if a state with an abortion ban like Texas' tries to prosecute a doctor who provides abortion care via telemedicine in that state, as long as the provider complies with New York law.
Legal experts have been divided over whether shield laws or state-level abortion bans should prevail in a case like the one filed by Paxton.
"What will it mean to say for the GOP to say abortion should be left to the states now?"
"It is important to remember that Dr. Carpenter did nothing wrong," said Greer Donley, a legal expert and University of Pittsburgh law professor who specializes in reproductive rights. "She followed her home state's laws."
The Food and Drug Administration also allows telehealth abortion care, "finding it safe and effective," Donley added. "Texas is trying to apply its laws extraterritorially."
In the Texas case, the patient was prescribed the pills at nine weeks pregnant. Mifepristone and misoprostol are approved for use through the 10th week of pregnancy and are more than 95% effective.
The patient experienced heavy bleeding after taking the pills and asked the man who had impregnated her to take her to the hospital. The lawsuit suggests that the man notified the authorities:
The biological father of the unborn child was told that the mother of the unborn child was experiencing a hemorrhage or severe bleeding as she "had been" nine weeks pregnant before losing the child. The biological father of the unborn child, upon learning this information, concluded that the biological mother of the unborn child had intentionally withheld information from him regarding her pregnancy, and he further suspected that the biological mother had in fact done something to contribute to the miscarriage or abortion of the unborn child. The biological father, upon returning to the residence in Collin County, discovered the two above-referenced medications from Carpenter.
In the lawsuit, Paxton is asking a Collin County court to block Carpenter from violating Texas law and order her to pay $100,000 for each violation of Texas' near-total abortion ban.
Carpenter and ACT did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.
Caroline Kitchener, who has covered abortion rights for The Washington Post, noted that lawsuits challenging abortion provider shield laws were "widely expected after the 2024 election."
President-elect Donald Trump has said abortion rights should be left up to the states, but advocates have warned that the Republican Party, with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, is likely to push a national abortion ban.
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Dr. Mehmet Oz, the "former daytime television fixture" who U.S. President-elect Donald Trump picked to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, reported "up to $56 million in investments in three companies" with direct CMS interests, the watchdog Accountable.US highlighted Friday.
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Nick Clemens, Oz's spokesperson on the Trump transition team, told USA TODAY—which first reported on the Accountable.US findings—that Oz sold his stake in Sharecare but did not address further questions.
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"As CMS administrator, you would be tasked with overseeing Medicare and ensuring that the tens of millions of seniors that rely on the program receive the care they deserve, including cracking down on abuses by private insurers in Medicare Advantage," they pointed out. "The consequences of failure on your part would be grave. Billions of federal healthcare dollars—and millions of lives—are at stake."
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In a first of its kind report, our Gaza based partner Community Training Centre for Crisis Management asked injured, separated and disabled children and their caregivers about the toll of the ongoing war on their lives. Their answers are devastating but sadly not a surprise. 1/5
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— War Child UK ( @warchilduk.bsky.social) December 12, 2024 at 3:31 AM
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