Lawmakers to Big Oil: invest in alternative energy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congressional Democrats on Thursday urged big oil companies to invest more of their record profits into boosting U.S. oil production and developing renewable energy instead of buying back their own stock.

Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which reported on Thursday the biggest quarterly corporate profit in history at $11.7 billion, has bought back $16 billion of its stock in the first half of 2008. Other oil companies have also spent billions of dollars buying their stock, earning the ire of the public and many members of Congress.

“We are writing to express our concern that you have used much of your record profits in recent years to buy back your own stock to enrich the value of your share price, rather than invest in oil exploration or production here in the U.S. or in the research and development of alternative energy sources that are demanded by U.S. consumers,” the lawmakers said in a letter to the heads of the five biggest public oil companies.

Reuters