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Money Gushes In for U.S. Oil Companies: LAT,

Even for Big Oil, the numbers have never been as big as this.

When major U.S. energy companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. announce their third-quarter earnings in the next few days, the results are certain to be staggering.

Pumped up by soaring oil, natural gas and gasoline prices in August and September, Exxon Mobil alone is expected to report quarterly profit of about $8.7 billion. That would be more than such titans as Coca-Cola Co., Intel Corp. and Time Warner Inc. earn in an entire year....

"The question increasingly is going to be, what is the industry going to do with this money?" said Amy Jaffe, head of the James A. Baker Institute Energy Forum at Rice University in Houston.

They could invest it in the public good and lower the price of gas.

NYT: Republicans Ask Oil Industry for Help With Fuel Prices;

After forcing through two pieces of legislation with significant benefits for the oil industry this year, House Republican leaders on Tuesday called for oil companies to return the favor by building new refineries and taking other steps to increase fuel supply and lower gas prices.

"It is time to invest in America," said Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who said that in a period of soaring industry profits, "we expect oil companies to do their part to help ease the pain American families are feeling from high energy prices."

The decision by Republicans to take aim at an industry that is typically a chief ally reflected mounting anxiety among lawmakers about the political fallout from soaring fuel prices....

Or they could invest it in Planetran for when the oil runs out. The Oil Drum has the story:

Planetran... was a high-speed underground train, capable of going from L.A. to N. Y. in 54 minutes. There is now the occasional reference back to articles such as appeared in the LA Times back in the 70's when the idea was first getting column inches.

Yeah, by now I thought we'd all be floating on magnetic roads in soft magnetic cars that would repel each other, and never crash.

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