* As Stephen Simon of ExxonMobil humbly pointed out, his hated behemoth -- America's largest oil and gas corporation -- accounts for only 3 percent of global oil production and 6 percent of global refining capacity. It has only 1 percent of global petroleum reserves - 14th in the world.
Big Oil can take care of itself in Washington - and it always has. It has bought and paid for all the lobbyists and political patrons it needs. Big Oil is not perfect. And it doesn't deserve a dime in government subsidies or special tax breaks.
But with worldwide oil demand up, oil harder to get at and oil prices at $130-plus a barrel and maybe climbing, America needs Big Oil now more than ever -- no matter what environmentalists and liberal senators feel or think.
So instead of pandering to voters' ignorance, maybe Washington politicians should try to do something useful for once -- like helping Big Oil discover, extract and deliver the energy all earthlings still need to make their lives better.
Bill Steigerwald
Bill Steigerwald, born and raised in Pittsburgh, is a former L.A. Times copy editor and free-lancer who also worked as a docudrama researcher for CBS-TV in Hollywood before becoming a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a columnist Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Bill Steigerwald recently retired from daily newspaper journalism..
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