Five oil bigwigs spent this morning complaining to Congress that cutting subsidies to their companies would be, at the very least, "anticompetitive" (Chevron's John Watson) and at worst "misinformed and discrimnatory" (ExxonMobil's Rex Tillerson).
The Senate is planning on voting this week on a bill to cut subsides to the five biggest oil companies. The bill would put $21 billion back into government's pocket over the next 10 years.
Oil executives consider this idea totally, utterly unfair. Chevron's CEO, John Watson, told Congress that oil companies shouldn't be penalized for success.
"Don't punish our industry for doing its job well," he said.
Apparently, record oil prices are an accomplishment. With multimillion compensation packages in their pockets, though, these CEOs don't need to sweat paying $4 per gallon of gas.
