U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday threatened oil companies with higher taxes on their excess profits if they do not work to reduce gasoline prices amid the economic crisis.
«Their profits are windfall profits from war,» the U.S. leader has stressed, adding that «it’s time for these companies to stop speculating» amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has sent energy prices soaring globally.
These comments come days after the world’s largest oil companies, U.S.-based ExxonMobil and Chevron, closed the third quarter of 2022 with strong increases in their respective profits.
In the case of ExxonMobil, net attributable profit between July and September reached 19,660 million dollars (19,612 million euros), almost three times more than a year earlier. On its side, Chevron’s net profit in the third quarter of 2022 soared to 11.231 billion dollars (11.204 billion euros), 83.8 percent more than in the same period of 2021.
Biden’s comments on Monday are unlikely to lead, as picked up by ‘The Washington Post’,to the passage of a new law, but they mark the culmination of months of internal debate within the Administration over what the best response to high gas prices might be.
Biden, who did not go into details about the possible tax on oil companies, said he will work with Congress to analyze these and other options just days before the mid-term elections.
