Watching Petrocrats Gloat

Even better than Mark Green's sour face on the Sunday morning political shows was the troika of petrocrats on Meet the Press. Tim Russert lobbed softball questions at the presidents/CEOs of Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Shell. On that video link, the interview starts 24 minutes in. You can recognize them as the three smug, pallid little pigs in designer suits.

Interestingly, John Hofmeister, from Shell, hadn't been sufficiently prepped by his media relations people, and he came off as a gloating Dr. Evil who was much more candid than he should have been. He seemed to only have experience interacting with lobbyists, politicians, and other people he controls.

Take his attempt at spinning consumer disgust at gas prices:

I wish people could come inside the company and see how employees are reacting to the high prices, as well. They're energized to go after more supply. The real issue is that demand has outstripped supply, and as a consequence of that we're putting more capital into the business than we have in our history. We have more projects going on in this country and around the world than we have had in many, many years. Our employees are really getting excited about what they can do.

So Shell employees arrive at work with big grins on their faces when gas prices break $3 a gallon? That makes me feel so much better about price gouging.

He was also the doofus who revealed Big Oil's hand by admitting that "energy independence is going too far." That admission hasn't been too popular on the news shows or the blogs. Every time Russert mentioned an oil executive salary or gas price, Hofmeister started smirking. He was really the cartoon version of a greedy oil executive.