NEW CLIMATE POWER CAMPAIGN: ‘YOU’RE PAYING MORE SO OIL COMPANIES CAN PROFIT MORE’
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TV along with Digital Ads & Billboards Target Key Markets, Marks First Step in New Campaign to Hold Oil Companies Accountable
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 25th, 2022
Contact: Erik Mebust, erik@climatepower.us
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Climate Power announced a new campaign to explain how oil companies are raking in historic profits by price gouging Americans at the pump. The campaign launches with new advertising on the eve of oil companies announcing their second-quarter profits which analysts expect to be “gargantuan” because of soaring gas prices. The message is simple: “Today, you’re paying way more so oil companies can profit way more.”
The new $3 million campaign will blend tv, digital ads and billboards with on-the-ground events and other campaign activities. That includes the airing of ‘Guess What’ on TV and digital in Reno, Tucson, Norfolk, and Colorado Springs. Additionally, billboards will be near gas stations in places like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Orange County, California.
“Families have dealt with unprecedented pain at the pump while oil and gas executives are celebrating their gargantuan historic profits,” said Lori Lodes, Climate Power Executive Director. “Oil and gas executives are getting rich and their allies in Congress refuse to hold them accountable. The top five oil companies made $35 billion in the first quarter of 2022 alone. In the next 2 weeks, we’ll learn their second-quarter profits from when gas prices spiked past $5 and just how much they have been profiting off of people’s pain. ”
Oil companies already faced criticism for earning a record $100 billion in profits during the first quarter of the year as high gas prices squeezed families’ budgets and contributed to rising inflation. The spike in gas prices has been driven by oil and gas executives taking advantage of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to enrich themselves and their wealthy Wall Street investors. Yet Republicans in Congress refuse to stand up to their oil and gas donors. Every Republican member voted against the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act which would have held oil companies accountable for price gouging at the pump.
Oil and gas CEOs have kept production low, which drove up profits and stock buybacks. A recent report found that in the weeks after Putin invaded Ukraine, oil company CEOs personally profited to the tune of $99 million from selling shares in their companies.
Early filings by ExxonMobil and Shell have already revealed they are projecting major windfalls from their second-quarter profits.
- A filing by ExxonMobil revealed that they anticipate between $1 billion and $1.4 billion in profit growth from liquid fuels, and another $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion from gas.
- Overall, analysts expect ExxonMobil to report as much as $18 billion in profit for the months of April, May, and June.
- Meanwhile, Shell also revealed in a filing that their refining margin more than doubled from the first quarter to the second quarter of the year, which is expected to add more than $1 billion to quarterly earnings.
The full second-quarter profits will be made available over the course of the next two weeks; including from the big 5 oil companies:
- July 28: Shell
- July 29: Chevron and Exxon
- August 2: BP
- August 4: ConocoPhillips
Individuals increasingly view corporate greed as a major cause of inflation, and recent polling by Navigator found that “price gouging” is the most accurate description for oil and gas companies’ behavior.
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