Oil Companies Refuse to Chip in to Aid Fund

WASHINGTON – Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, said Monday that after she and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., asked big oil companies to contribute voluntarily to a fund that would help low-income consumers deal with record high oil costs, the American Petroleum Institute has rejected the request.

The five biggest oil companies earned a record $123 billion in profits last year and are expected to announce another bumper year for oil profits this week, Snowe’s office said in a press release.

“Unfortunately, the API has decided it’s not their ‘role’ to play an active part in alleviating the burden that skyrocketing gas and oil prices are having on low-income Americans and seniors,” Snowe said in a statement. “While the oil and gas industry enjoy record profits, the rest of America is forced to bear the brunt of the financial burden.”

According to the Energy Information Administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook, the price of heating oil was 36 percent higher this year than last. In 2001, it cost the average American household $627 to heat its home with oil in winter. This winter, it cost almost $2,000 on average to heat a home with oil.

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