Trump accuses oil companies of ‘making too much money’ from his war on Iran
by BILL HEANEY
ExxonMobil should be a name familiar to every council taxpayer in West Dunbartonshire. It is an international oil company that put the arm on us, the council taxpayers, for an initial £ 6 billion to clean up their abandoned tank farm site at Bowling, which they polluted over the 50 years they spent making large profits here.
They milked the Clydeside site for all its worth before dismantling the jetty and huge oil tanks, and then driving off into the sunset wearing large stetsons and contentedly puffing huge cigars.
And with the kind of brass neck which only these people appear to possess, later dropped in at the Council offices in Church Street and asked for a loan of £6 million greenbacks to pay for cleaning up the environmental mess they had made before driving away in their Cadillacs.
And, believe it or not, our naive councillors – the people we elected – are in the process of giving them a top-up of an even bigger amount than that initial £6 million.
Only Cllr Jim Bollan disagreed with his colleagues. Yes, that’s correct, the much-maligned Bollan was the only one of them to say No.
ExxonMobil was never broke, of course, but simply putting the poor mouth on it as their ilk often does by diverting money from the poor to the rich.
Foolishly, the “working class” Scottish Labour councillors and the SNP were swift to dip their hands in their sporrans (aka our pockets and purses) to support ExxonMobil.
Even Donald Trump knows that ExxonMobil and Chevron have far too much money and is advocating that they should ‘give some of that back to the public’.
Hope they will keep West Dunbartonshire Council in mind when they are paying off their debts.
Brent crude had been trading at about $70 (£52) a barrel before the first US-Israeli strikes at the end of February, but by the end of April it had soared as high as $126 and is now trading at about $85 a barrel.
The US president aimed at the windfall profits revealed last week by ExxonMobil and Chevron, and said the companies would “give some of that back to the public”.
“They’re making too much money based on a shortage,” he told reporters at the White House on Monday evening. “I don’t like it.”
Trump was speaking just hours before BP reported that its profits had doubled in the last quarter, to $5.7bn. That’s billions.
The US oil companies made profits totalling more than $26bn for the three months to the end of June.
“Chevron: too much money. ExxonMobil: too much money,” Trump said. “They’re going to give some of that back to the public and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price (at the petrol pumps across the globe).”
Asked about Trump’s comments, the BP chief executive, Meg O’Neill, said that she understood the pressures on households. “The reality is, we produce a global commodity, and the product we sell hangs off that global commodity price,” she added.
Climate campaigners have also attacked big oil’s bumper quarterly earnings, condemning them as “obscene”.
Clémence Dubois, a campaigns director at 350.org, an international environmental group, said: “Chevron and Exxon are profiteering from a model of distraction, leaving ordinary people to pay the price with higher bills and devastating impacts such as these fires. These profits feel almost criminal.”
West Dunbartonshire Council, as per usual, has no comment to make on this important issue.
Top of page: The ExxonMobil site between Dumbuck and Bowling, which involves a large road project.
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How long has it taken to repair and restore the Union Street corner and the Central Station where fire ravaged the buildings there after that spectacular fire which brought Glasgow to a halt?
And how long has it taken to complete the public library and museum in Glencairn House in High Street, Dumbarton? And how have the costs escalated during that time?
How long will it take and how much will it cost the public purse before the Boris Johnson “levelling up” project in Dumbarton is completed?
West Dunbartonshire Council, despite their spin doctors having publicised an opening date for the new library, for which there is little public enthusiasm, have now had to admit that the date has been changed to God only knows when.
That’s another red face for the incompetent council (it’s becoming impossible to shame them) who still haven’t issued a media release to let the public know about the opening of the museum and “the Big Green Lavvy down the Quay”.
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West Dunbartonshire among UK’s best areas for budget supermarkets, according to ‘research’
Congratulations to our young people who did so well in their examinations. They deserve all the gifts of money and special nights out we can afford to give them.
But this week West Dunbartonshire has been named the UK’s third-best area for budget supermarkets.
The way things are going, too many young folk are going to have to settle for jobs as shelf stackers and checkout operators in our too-many supermarkets.With a population of 89,120, the region is home to 13 budget supermarket stores, including Aldi, Asda, Farmfoods, Iceland, and Lidl.
ASDA is not yet open but is still under construction in Castle Street, Dumbarton, at the moment.
This ranking comes after the property experts analysed data on average annual pay, rent, housing affordability, mortgage prices, and budget supermarkets in each area to reveal the most and least affordable places to live in the UK.