"Big Oil"? What Big Oil?

I've been writing about how the Democrats are dead wrong about their energy policies. They are using the "crisis" of high gas prices, which they are largely to blame for in the first place, for political gain.

One myth they like to spread is about how "big oil" is controlling the price of gasoline.

The nice folks at powerline have posted a picture presented at the congressional hearings:


Can you find "Big Oil" in that chart? Hint: Look to the right. The 14th line over, in gray, is the first U.S. oil company, Exxon/Mobil.

Yep, thats right. Exxon Mobile, supposed behomoth, and evil "big oil" company controlling the world's supply of oil for it's own greed, is the 14th largest company. 13 other companies are bigger. Exxon/Mobile controls about 2% of the world's supply of oil. Two percent doesn't "control" anything.

But the Democrats, who sat dumbfounded through this presentation, didn't miss a beat, and tomorrow they'll still be selling the idea that there are evil U.S. oil companies who are to blame for your high gas prices -- when the simple truth is that we have high gas prices because the Democrats won't allow drilling anywhere in this country where there are significant supplies of oil, won't let anybody build any new gasoline refineries, and mostly spend their time supporting dozens of gas formulations, and the forced addition of our corn crop to the gasoling supplies.

Update: Here's some parts of the Powerline article on the subject:

With 94% of the world's oil supply locked up by foreign governments, most of which are hostile to the United States, the relatively puny American oil companies do not have access to enough crude oil to significantly affect the market and help bring prices down.
...
The United States--unlike, say, France--actually has vast petroleum reserves. It would be possible for American oil companies to develop those reserves, play a far bigger role in international markets, and deliver gas at the pump to American consumers at a much lower price, while creating many thousands of jobs for Americans.
...
So, why doesn't it happen? Because the Democratic Party--aided, sadly, by a handful of Republicans--deliberately keeps gas prices high and our domestic oil companies small by putting most of our reserves off limits to development.
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ANWR contains vast petroleum reserves, but we don't know how vast, because Congress, not wanting the American people to know how badly its policies are hurting our economy, has made it illegal to explore and map those reserves, let alone develop them.