I work in an industry that loses money 7 out of every ten years. The three years every decade that we make money, it has to be a lot to make up for the losses. Even though we
always sell our product for less than it costs us to produce, we still get hauled in front of Congress and state legislatures to listen to ignorant, self important politicians lie through their teeth and just plain invent $h!t when we make money.
The oil industry is very similar. This is nothing but politicians posturing in an election year over an issue they can do absolutely nothing about. You want to ***** about oil prices to someone? Try *****ing to the cartel that controls 60% of the market in crude. Try *****ing to the sheep floor traders that bid up the price of crude (to borrow a phrase) when a butterfly farts in Nigeria. Try *****ing to the corrupt Soviet government that is purposefully creating confrontations with oil-producing countries to feed fear about crude supply and drive up prices. What we call "big oil" has very little ability to influence the price of crude.
Oh, and I didn't recall anyone *****ing when oil companies were forced to pump crude at a loss 7 years ago.
