Chevron Fourth-Quarter Earnings Rise to $4.14 Billion, Highest Profit in Company’s History

The national average is $2.33 a gallon, about 20 cents per gallon higher than December 2. Further price rises over the short-term are likely.

Regular gas at Atlanta Chevron stations is currently $2.39.

Do these companies deserve our our tax dollars?

To Review: Condoleezza Rice was a Board member of Chevron from 1991-2001 (she was also on the boards of Charles Schwab, Hewlett Packard, and Transamerica Corp.). Chevron named their largest oil tanker after her (but later quietly changed the name to “Altair Voyager”).

Vice President Cheney was Chairman and Chief Executive of Halliburton Corporation, the world’s largest oil field services company with multi-billion dollar contracts with oil corporations including Chevron – and was instrumental in negotiating a Caspian Sea pipeline for Chevron. His personal shares are doing quite well, as you might imagine.

Anna Perez, who was Chevron’s General Manager of Corporate Communications, went from there to become National Security Council Director of Communications and is now Executive VP of Communications at none other than NBC Universal. Her background in this PR mix of corporate, media, and political interests also includes being VP of California Government Relations for the Walt Disney Company and Press Secretary to First Lady Barbara Bush. Too bad, she actually looks like a very interesting woman.

In July 2005 the Washington Post reported that Wayne L. Berman, “a principal lobbyist for Chevron, is a Bush ‘Ranger,’ having raised at least $200,000 for the president’s campaign. His wife, Lea Berman, is – you know, just coincidentally – the White House social secretary (she’s also been Chief of Staff to Lynne Cheney).

Chevron has been guilty of several environmental and human rights abuses. For example, Chevron’s Nigerian subsidiary paid Nigerian soldiers who attacked the Nigerian villages of Opia and Ikenyan, killing several people and burning the villages to the ground. The Richmond, CA refinery produces oil flares and toxic waste in the Richmond area. There have been ten refinery accidents in the last decade. Chevron’s Richmond facility is one of the top polluters in the state, releasing cancer-causing chromium and mercury into the air, and dioxins into the bay. Fires at the plant, as well as chemical releases of sulfur dioxide, have subjected the largely African American, Latino, and Southeast Asian neighbors to multiple shelter-in-place orders.

However, their lobbying and donations to our bodybuilding moviestar Gov. of California resulted in the removal of restrictions on oil refineries in California.

Texaco has been merged under the Chevron name. Standard Oil is Chevron. Caltex pizza and the convenience store chain Star Mart are also owned by Chevron. In the industry, they are second only to giant ExxonMobil in Republican campaign contributions. Yes, ExxonMobil is actually much worse. Chevron has shown some concern for equal rights and opportunity – they even offer domestic partner health insurance benefits. They have moved into some projects with hydrogen energy as well, so they see either see the end of oil coming or it’s part of their corporate welfare program responsibilities – not sure which. They’ve even started an online discussion on energy issues.

Still, in 2002, the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) uncovered evidence showing the Bush administration implemented energy policies requested by Chevron Corporation. Oh, and don’t forget the oil chiefs just absolutely got away with lying to Congress about the Cheney Energy Task Force meetings. You, know, the ones where Cheney absolutely refuses to hand over the documents? The ones with the oil maps of Iraq?