Letters to the Editor: Oil companies’ ‘investments’ into Trump’s interests sure paid off

To the editor: This article states, “From April through June, Chevron, the biggest refiner and second-biggest oil producer in California, made $12.1 billion in profit, nearly five times the same quarter last year, and its highest earnings in at least six years” (“Energy company profits are soaring with the Iran war. Here’s what California officials want to do,” Aug. 5). It also notes, “Chevron said its performance reflected global operations, not state or regional results, and was driven by past investments.”

Does Chevron and the other refiners reaping “obscene profits,” as state Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) put it, consider political contributions and paid lobbying efforts totaling tens of millions of dollars to President Trump and his GOP lackeys as investments? How about their contributions to various unaccountable slush funds like Freedom 250?

If so, those “investments” — anyone else would accurately call them bribes — certainly paid off handsomely. And they profit a little more with every green energy project they’ve successfully paid to kill.

Wally Ross, Pasco, Wash.

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To the editor: While I support lawmakers’ efforts to tamp down the stunning profits accruing to the likes of Chevron and Exxon since the onset of the Iranian war, I don’t believe outrage over that enrichment is the solution.

Rather, the real and lasting solution is plugging into the future with electric vehicles and leaving America’s oil-drenched past in the past where it belongs.

Linda Nicholes, Huntington Beach