While Americans are seeing their savings diminish, their jobs disappear, their kids’ education going down the tubes, and environmental priorities buried under bad economic news, the global giant Exxon Mobil keeps on piling up the profits.

Exxon Mobil brought in $442.85 billion in revenue in 2008 and made over $45 billion in profits, capturing the number one position in the Fortune 500, with a 10% margin on revenue. It is going quite well, thank you, due to Exxon’s oligopolistic control within the oil industry.

Isn’t it time that we used some of these monopoly-based profits for environmental quality, energy efficiencies, renewable energy, and fast mass transit?

We could in our state if the Legislature would take up the “Community Reinvestment of Oil Windfall Profits” legislation – HB 1510 – introduced into the state House of Representatives in 2007. That would be a whole lot better than figuring out who to kick off the state’s basic health plan or deny higher education.