Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Big Oil Basking In Record Profits And Corporate Stock Buybacks At The Expense Of The American People

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Big Oil reaping record profits and cashing in on corporate stock buybacks while gouging the price Americans pay at the pump and pushing to repeal vital clean energy investments.  Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

It’s a disturbing tale as old as time: while Big Oil companies bask in record-breaking profits, hardworking Americans are feeling the pinch of high prices at the pump.

Instead of working to lower gas prices for Americans ahead of a busy Memorial Day weekend, Big Oil executives seem to be huddling to find ways to keep gas prices high and keep profits soaring.

One of those ways included Big Oil executives spending their time cozying up to Donald Trump, who, as we all know, is no enemy of Big Oil.

A few weeks ago the Washington Post released a disturbing account of a meeting Donald Trump held with Big Oil executives at Mar-A-Lago, where Donald Trump promised Big Oil executives he’ll gut the clean energy investments and jobs made possible by the legislation we Democrats passed in exchange for $1 billion for his reelection efforts.

This is sickening: Donald Trump would quite literally be bought by the biggest polluters in the world, and be totally beholden to the fossil fuel agenda. And Americans will pay the price at the pump. Donald Trump is not even hiding it.

But sadly, Big Oil’s greediness doesn’t stop with Donald Trump. A recent report showed that Big Oil companies were also among the biggest perpetrators of stock buybacks, using their soaring profits to further line the pockets of wealthy executives and shareholders.

Stock buybacks aren’t good for the economy. Stock buybacks aren’t good for workers. Stock buybacks aren’t good for anyone but the wealthy oil executives and shareholders. It shows that instead of investing in new energy – and we’d hope they’d do it with clean energy – they’re instead just raising their stock prices.

There is something deeply wrong with Big Oil companies continuing to rake in the cash at the expense of the American people. So, Democrats will keep working to shine a spotlight on oil companies’ unfair practices and to hold them accountable.

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