But, why lay odds against Exxon at all. Depending on who final numbers come out, it may top the Fortune 500 in revenue. Its market cap is $414 billion. In the last quarter, the company did $99 billion in sales and operating income of $18.6 billion, both substantial increases over the immediately previous quarter.

But, there are a few little issues lurking around Exxon. One is that oil prices may not go up forever. Gas consumption in the US and elsewhere is dropping off due to rising prices. It appears that BP will keep the Alaska pipeline open, at least partially.

There is also a move afoot in Congress. As the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote recently: One analyst, Paul Sankey of Deutsche Bank, asked (Exxon CEO) Hubble whether Exxon Mobil was concerned about “negative attention from Washington” in the form of proposals for excess profits taxes. Such a bill was introduced in Congress last year but has yet to receive committee approval.

Although the odds that such a bill would make it into law may be fairly long, if the rise in profits at the big oil companies continues, such an action in Congress is probaly more likely.

ExxonMobil’s stock trades at $70, very near its 52-week high. Two years ago, the stock was at $45. For a company that has one of the largest market caps in the world, that is a real run. And, what goes up, must come down.

In truth, the American oil companies are mostly middlemen and distributors, and don’t have much influence over the price of oil, at least as compared with the oil exporting countries themselves. And oil is definitely “demand-pulled”; oil prices were low in the late 1990s because of Asia’s weak economy and China/India not yet becoming big oil importers. China became an oil importer in the late 1990s, started importing bigtime in the 2000s, and has been increasing its imports 30-40% per year for the past couple of years. India has followed the same trajectory.

The fact you don’t see people changing their behavior just goes to show exactly how much power the oil industry has over the economy. What reason do they have to invest in and use anything more than “just enough” infrastructure to meet demand? With any other product, if you increase supply and lower your prices, theoretically people will buy more. However, if they increase supply, do you think people will start leaving their vehicles and lights running more than usual simply because it’s cheaper? Because there is pretty much a guaranteed demand with little competition, many of the self-regulating factors of the market are removed.

If the technology existed to solve all of our problems and all we had to do was produce it, I wouldn’t have any concerns what so ever. The market would have an option. However, the future is riding on hopes of technology and solutions that as of right now aren’t too feasible. Even the so hyped ethanol takes more energy to produce than we get out of it. So if having some simple concerns over the future of energy makes me look anti-capitalistic or like I support attacking free enterprise, well, then so be it.

If the roads were empty and the busses full, if the sidewalks were clogged with pedestrians and bicyclists, then I might be more sympathetic. But even at $3+ a gallon, people in gas hogs still blast past me on the road at 10 to 20 over. They may gripe about Exxon and the price of gas, but their actions say otherwise.