I Think I Found a Shortcut

I Think I Found a Shortcut
Originally uploaded by jimheid.

Jim Heid sez:

Happy Monday! Here are a few facts to take you into your work week.

California consumed 15.5 billion gallons of gas in 2004—more than any other foreign nation. (Japan used 15.46 billion gallons in 2004; China used 13 billion gallons.)

The United States used 133 billion gallons of gas in 2004, as much as the next 27 top-consuming nations combined.

Americans bought ten percent more gas in the first half of this year than in the first half of 2000, despite its price being 75 percent higher.

Profits of the top five oil companies for the previous quarter:

ConocoPhillips: $5.2 billion; up 65 percent

Royal Dutch Shell: $7.3 billion; up 40 percent

Exxon Mobil: $10.4 billion; up 40 percent

BP: $7.3 billion; up 30 percent

Chevron: $4.4 billion; up 18 percent

It probably took you about a minute to read all this. In that amount of time in the previous quarter, BP earned $55,000 in net profit.