Gusher: Oil profits soar a year after tax break

Shell's profits jumped 36% in the last three months to $6.3 billion, ConocoPhillips' second quarter profits leapt 65% to $5.18 billion, and BP's take for the same period jumped to $7.3 billion in profits (that's 30% more than the same period a year ago), which means the company makes $55,000 each minute. As oil companies rake it in, despite $3+/gallon at the tank, let's remember that a year ago yesterday, the Bush administration passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, "which lavished $14.5 billion in tax breaks on energy firms, nearly 60 percent of which went to 'oil, natural gas, coal, electric utilities and nuclear power.'"

Update: Don't forget Chevron, whose 2Q profits hit an all-time high of $4.35 billion, and ExxonMobil made $10.4 billion over the same period--the equivalent to making $1318 each second.

And: Where will we live in 2025, when drinking water is scarce, sea levels are higher, and other effects of global warming cause mass migration? the Center for Climate Systems Research publishes an in-depth report that finds "the greatest increases in population density through 2025 are likely to occur in areas of developing countries that are already quite densely populated" and "the number of people living within 60 miles of a coastline is expected to increase by 35 percent over 1995 population levels, exposing 2.75 billion people worldwide to the effects of sea level rise and other coastal threats posed by global warming."

Earlier: America's worst greenwashers.

Image via Art not Oil.