Profiting from war is immoral, Government must tax companies making windfall profits, says Jennifer Whitmore
WHILE the cost-of-living crisis is causing havoc for millions of people across the globe, some companies are laughing all the way to the bank.
Global energy giant Shell said this week that its annual profits doubled to €36billion last year – a record high as oil and gas prices soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Shell is the latest oil company to report bumper profits. US-based ExxonMobil posted record annual profits days earlier, while UK rival BP and France’s TotalEnergies also reported huge returns.
The eye-watering profits has led to increased calls for a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.
Writing in the Irish Sun, Social Democrats energy spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore says our government must get on with introducing a windfall tax as quickly as possible.
STAGGERING PROFITS
Shell this week announced it had made one of the biggest profits in UK corporate history — a staggering €36billion.
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To say that this bonanza is unprecedented is an understatement. Shell has been in existence for more than a century and never before have its profits reached such dizzying heights.
It’s hard to get your head around such a huge figure. But to try to put it in context, it would take the average worker in this country 14,810 years to earn €1billion. So, approximately 533,160 years of continuous work to earn €36billion.
It is an obscene amount of money, most of which is being funnelled to enrich already wealthy shareholders via dividends and share buy-backs.
Shell is not the only oil and gas company making historic profits. Last year, US President Joe Biden described Exxon as having “more money than god”.
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MIND-BOGGLING
That was before the company last month announced profits of a mind-boggling €56billion in 2022 — setting a record for any oil and gas company anywhere on the planet.
Commenting on the windfall profits, Exxon CEO Darren Woods said: “Our results clearly benefit from a favourable market.”
That “favourable market”, it should be remembered, is a war in Ukraine that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, razed entire cities to the ground and caused the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.
Oil company executives have not used their ingenuity or hard work to drive these outsized profits.
They are being driven by just one thing — the unimaginable human misery caused by Putin’s despicable warmongering.
Profiting from this suffering to such an enormous extent is disgusting and immoral.
Worse, governments across the world are allowing these companies to rake in these unprecedented profits without any clawback being imposed.
Given these companies are based in the UK and the US, you may wonder why this matters to us. The Irish government doesn’t have the power to impose a windfall tax on companies in other countries.
This is true, but Exxon’s profits should be a matter of deep concern for us in Ireland.
In December, it announced that it was suing the EU in a bid to scupper the bloc’s new windfall tax on oil companies.
If they win that legal case, plans for a windfall tax in this country will be scrapped.
WINDFALL TAX
Exxon made €56billion in profit last year — and it wants to keep every penny of it.
It has argued that a windfall tax would be “counterproductive” and “undermine investor confidence”. Its spokespeople even managed to keep straight faces when they made these ridiculous arguments.
The greed of these companies is truly breath-taking and should not be underestimated.
For them, no profit can ever be enough, no matter how high. This is why the EU must fight this case — and win.
Meanwhile, our own government must get on with introducing a windfall tax as quickly as possible.
You don’t have to be an oil company to have made super profits last year. Electricity and gas suppliers, as well as windfarms, are all making enormous profits in Ireland, all of which should be subject to a windfall tax.
In the first six months of 2022, the ESB tripled its profits, while Bord Gáis Energy’s profits were up 74 per cent.
SLOW INTRODUCTION
Meanwhile, windfarms are netting income six times above expectations because the price of electricity generated by wind is linked to the price of gas.
The Social Democrats have been calling for a windfall tax for more than a year — and the government finally agreed in September’s budget.
However, its introduction has been painfully slow. The latest update from Energy Minister Eamon Ryan is that his department is still working on windfall tax legislation, but he has not said when it will happen.
The Minister must stop sitting on his hands and tax these companies on their obscene profits.
The windfall taxes must then urgently be directed to those families and businesses that are struggling to keep the lights and the heat on during this cost-of-living crisis.
