CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Image by Zbynek Burival.

We were filling the tank (and emptying the wallet) when a guy in a pickup truck with a Trump sticker started complaining about the high price of gas. We told him the oil companies are making unholy profits but the price at the pump is just a fraction of what we’re really paying. Taxpayers give oil and gas companies billions, we said, and, we couldn’t resist, it’s much worse since Trump’s election. He didn’t believe us. So, here’s the story:

While many of us are cutting back on groceries, travel, health care and other necessities to pay almost five bucks a gallon for gas (more than $5/gallon in some states), oil companies are raking in mega bucks. According to the politically centrist publication, The Hill, since President Trump started the war with Iran the world’s eleven largest oil companies are earning about 30 million dollars every hour. That comes to $720 million a day or more than $5 billion every week. Feeling ripped off? You should, but the price you pay at the pump is only what you see and feel. A lot of your tax dollars go to Big Oil too.

For over a hundred years America’s oil companies received billions in direct subsidies from the federal government, and taxpayers paid the bill. Direct cash payments, tax cuts, generous depreciation allowances, reduced leasing costs to drill on federal land, are just some of the ways oil and gas companies make a profit at taxpayers’ expense. In fact, based on an Obama administration estimate, between 2005 and 2015 U.S. oil and gas producers received more than $46 billion in public assistance. Ordinary citizens pay taxes, not Big Oil. In 2025, for example, the three........

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