ExxonMobil is going on the offense on a day it reported high earnings for the quarter. | AP Photo ExxonMobil hits back at Dems

ExxonMobil Thursday defiantly accused White House and congressional Democrats of playing politics with oil prices as the company announced $10.7 billion in first quarter earnings.

The company went on the offense on a day it reported its highest earnings for a quarter since 2008, a fact that President Barack Obama and Democrats are using to justify their push to repeal billions in annual tax incentives going to the oil and gas industry.


“We understand that it’s simply too irresistible for many politicians in times of high oil prices and high earnings — they feel they have to demonize our industry,” Ken Cohen, ExxonMobil’s vice president for public and government affairs, said in remarks prepared for an afternoon media call.

There has been “predictable political positioning but no action to actually help bring down energy prices,” Cohen said.

This includes Obama's recent announcement of setting up a Justice Department-led task force to examine possible price manipulation in oil and gas markets, which Cohen dismissed as "now a time-honored tradition when prices increase."

ExxonMobil — like others in the industry — wants the government to open up more areas for energy exploration and production.

Obama wants to repeal about $4 billion in tax incentives for the oil and gas industry and move that money to renewable energy projects and other efforts to reduce dependence on oil as one way to address gas prices.

“Over the last week as earnings season has approached, the Democratic Party leadership again talked about removing what they call $4 billion in oil industry subsidies,” Cohen said. “But what they really mean is that they want to increase our taxes by taking away long-standing deductions for our industry while leaving these same deductions in place for other sectors of the economy.”

Cohen also took aim at critics of hydraulic fracturing, which has allowed a number of new natural gas plays in the United States but comes with worries of water contamination.

“[P]olitical overreaction to a small number of isolated environmental issues could jeopardize this emerging industry and the benefits it provides,” Cohen said.

He also suggested lawmakers look at subsidies for renewable energy development like wind and solar, and “avoid a bias against natural gas and fossil fuel development in favor of far more costly energy sources that are already receiving massive subsidies.

“In fact, we've already spent more on alternative energy subsidies than we did on the Manhattan and Apollo projects combined. And what do we have to show for it? Unreliable and uneconomic energy sources that still can’t complete — even at today’s prices,” Cohen said.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass) — top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and a leading oil industry foe in Congress — countered in a statement, “In just the first 3 months of the year, Exxon has earned more profits than all of the tax breaks given to the major oil companies in an entire year.” He added that “there is absolutely no reason to continue to subsidize the most profitable companies in the history of the world.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 12:33 p.m. on April 28, 2011.