Griller Park

Yesterday, Congress opened fire on executives from the world's five largest oil companies. An unbelievable amount of smug questioning, mostly from Democrats, centered around the fact each company is taking tax subsidies and not investing in renewable resources amid record prices for oil and gasoline.

Consider this exchange between Ed Markey, D-Mass, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and Stephen Simon, Senior Vice President, Exxon Mobil Corp:

Markey hammered Exxon's Simon over the company's investment in renewable energy. "Why is Exxon Mobil resisting the renewable energy revolution?" asked Markey.

Simon said Exxon has given $100 million to Stanford to study renewables. "$100 million?" said Markey. "But you made $40 billion last year."

When pressed, Simon said Exxon believes the current generation of renewable energy options will not be able to significantly meet demand.

Referring to reports showing that low income people are paying 10 percent or more of their income on gas Markey said, "So your message to them is you can't do anything for them," he said.

Ouch! That's gotta hurt.

The flip side to this debate, one argued by the oil industry and Papa Bush (surprise, surprise) is that it's unfair to target the oil industry when tax breaks are available to all manufacturers. Pardon me if I'm unsympathetic, but when you've got a geyser spraying $123 billion in profit last year, no one gives a shit what you think is fair or not.

Read more at CNNMoney.com.