Thought you might like to know that Exxon reported record profits for the 4th quarter of 2005: $10.71 billion.

They broke their old record set in the third quarter of 2005.

From November 2005:

Oil Companies Deny Price-Gouging

Senators berated oil company executives claiming their big profits are the result of gouging U.S. consumers. The senators demanded that oil companies take steps to bring down high gasoline and heating oil prices.

Members of the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee questioned top executives from five major oil companies including Lee Raymond, chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp.

Raymond conceded that high gasoline prices "have put a strain on Americans’ household budgets" but he insisted that Exxon Mobil?s huge profits this year are just part of a business cycle where petroleum earnings "go up and down" from year to year.

Yeah.  Whatever.

UPDATE: Apparently, that’s not enough. Exxon wants the money it had to pay as punishment for the 1989 Valdez oil spill back:

Exxon Mobil Corp. urged a federal appeals court Friday to erase the $5 billion in damages an Alaska jury ordered the oil giant to pay for the 1989 Valdez oil spill.

Exxon attorney Walter Dellinger told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the company should be liable for no more than $25 million in punitive damages. Punitive damages are meant to deter and punish misconduct.