Its a wonderful day in the neighborhood for Big Oil.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp's quarterly profit rose a better-than-expected 69 percent as the world's largest publicly traded oil company benefited from higher crude prices and better margins for its refineries.
The Irving, Texas, company reported a first-quarter profit of $10.65 billion, or $2.14 per share, up from $6.3 billion, or $1.33 per share, a year earlier. [...]
Revenue rose 26 percent to $114 billion.
Oil and gas output rose 10 percent to 4.82 million barrels oil equivalent per day.
A 69% increase in profit.
Politically, there will never be a better time than right now to end the subsidy of Big Oil.
Even Republicans should be seriously contemplating ending the subsidies at this point, because public opinion will only further tilt in favor of doing so as each oil corporation reports their quarterly profits one-by-one. And lets face it, it's not as if Big Oil will divorce the Republican Party even if they do vote to end the subsidies. Who else could they turn to in the effort to legislatively-deny climate change and carry on the fight to defund the EPA?
Shell also posted a 22% increase in profits, and BP posted a 17% increase in profits.