London-based Shell’s profits for 2022 were almost $40 billion, twice the amount reported for 2021.

ExxonMobil earned nearly $56 billion in profit in 2022, posting an annual record not just for itself but for any U.S. or European oil giant -- that amounts to more than $100,000 every minute. How much did you profit each minute last year?

Those unimaginable profits have increased the jeopardy all of us face as a result of the climate crisis. Burn, baby, burn, and poison our environment, making the climate of our planet uninhabitable?!

Our representative as speaker of the House of Representatives intends to make deep cuts to the federal budget plan to cut the national debt. What he needs to do is have the big oil lobbyists removed from his office and the offices of his colleagues who agree with him. Exxon and Shell and all the big businesses profiting from not being regulated and not paying their appropriate share of taxes must be made to cut their profits (War profits?) and contribute what they should to solve the economic and climate challenges we all face. Cutting benefits to citizens who can least afford such cuts is not an acceptable solution. Imagine, just two companies profiting nearly 1/10 of a trillion dollars!

Frank Lock

Gainesville