There is not another industry in the United States that has been more vilified in the past few years than the Oil Industry. To many Americans, these companies represent corporate greed and the stranglehold that “special interests” have on politics in Washington. Driven first by the populist message of John Edwards’ campaign, the Oil Industry, ExxonMobil specifically, has proven an easy and popular target for Democratic presidential hopefuls. Barack Obama often announces at large campaign stops:

I know that it won’t be easy to change our energy policy. ExxonMobil made $11 billion last quarter. They don’t want to give those profits up easily.

Hillary Clinton has been no more gentle, saying:

Now, ExxonMobil had, you know, the highest profits in corporate history. Yet when CEO Lee Raymond was asked about how much his company had invested in alternative energy over the last decade, his reply was, and I quote, “a negligible amount.” Well, that’s unexcusable. You know, the oil industry is making $300 million a day, not because they planned on it, not because of great managerial expertise, but because of escalating world demand and therefore increasing prices for this commodity that they didn’t create in the first place. I think it’s time that we made sure they put a fair share of their profits toward a sound energy future.

There is no shortage of criticism against the Oil Industry. What we don’t often hear, is a response. How does the Oil Industry justify such high profits? Given these profits, why are companies like ExxonMobil still receiving government subsidies? One of our users, who works for an oil company, forwarded me an email sent to company employees in response to these exact questions. Click here to continue reading…