Dems accuse Big Oil firms of price gouging – National & International News – THU 7Apr2022

Dems accuse Big Oil firms of price gouging. Ukraine war creating uncertainty for US farmers, food prices. Could 8-year war in Yemen be nearing an end?

NATIONAL NEWS

Dems accuse Big Oil firms of price gouging

Members of an oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee accused executives from Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP and other oil companies of using the Ukraine crisis to “rip off” Americans at the gas pump. 

Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) accused oil firms of putting “profits ahead of the lives of innocent Ukrainians, and before our ability as a nation to hold Vladimir Putin accountable”. Trahan also called out the executives’ own recent public statements bragging that, “Putin’s invasion has been great for your bottom line”. She went on to say that the execs have taken advantage of the Ukraine crisis to further enrich both shareholders and themselves. Since the start of the war, Trahan said, “At least five top oil executives have cashed out some $99 million worth of stock personally”.

The oil executives have openly stated that many of their companies have recently posted record profits. However, they say those profits were driven by global prices and demand. Any added costs from supply chain and labor problems are being passed on to consumers. Meanwhile, recent reductions in global oil prices have been slow to reach consumers.

The execs said they have no plans to decrease dividends to shareholders or to halt stock buybacks that further drive up the price of their own stocks. Instead, they are demanding more drilling permits, even though many of the 9,000 permits they already hold aren’t being used to increase production.

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Ukraine war creates uncertainty for US farmers, food prices

In addition to high gas prices, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is already causing global food prices to spike. That should be good news for mid-size US farmers, who often operate on razor thin margins. However, as many get ready to plant the corn and wheat they’ve already sold, their key business costs are on the rise. Some are having difficulty purchasing fertilizer, which accounts for one-third of farmers’ operating costs on average, according to the USDA.

Russia is one of the world’s leading exporters of fertilizer inputs. Since the start of the war, the price of these commodities skyrocketed as various countries and growers upped their stockpiles. Now, fertilizer is becoming scarce. Without fertilizer, some US farmers will see smaller crop yields this year. This may mean they’ll be unable to fulfill all their orders. Even those who’ve managed to purchase fertilizers have no guarantee of recouping the added costs by year’s end.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Could 8-year war in Yemen be nearing an end?

Late last week, UN negotiators managed to broker a two-month ceasefire between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels. This was the first ceasefire in the conflict since 2016. The UN estimates that some 400,000 Yemenis have perished in the 8-year-old conflict. Because of an illegal embargo by the Saudis, about 60% of those died from hunger.

After the truce was announced on Sunday, global oil prices dropped about 1%. Throughout the conflict, Houthis have retaliated against Saudi bombing raids by targeting Saudi oil fields with rockets. A de-escalation in the conflict could reduce supply concerns.

Today, Yemen’s president-in-exile Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi has agreed to step down, handing over his powers to a presidential council. Hadi has spent much of his tenure in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. The council’s mission is to negotiate a peace deal with the Houthis and hopefully bring an end to the war, and with it one of the world’s worst ever humanitarian crises.

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