Corporate executives break into a sweat when Rep. Katie Porter whips out her handy whiteboard and markers to elucidate the points she makes before tearing them to shreds. Maybe it's the season, maybe because Halloween is near, Porter changed things up today, and decided to use candy as her visual aid while questioning Shell Oil exec, Gretchen Watkins.
"Shell called for between nineteen and twenty-two billion dollars in near-term spending. I'm representing that with this container of M&Ms. {holds up clear jar of M&Ms} Each M&M represents about fifty million dollars of spending. Ms. Watkins, how much has Shell said it will spend in the near term on oil, gas, and chemical operations?" Porter asked.
"I think you just said we're gonna be spending between eighteen and twenty billion dollars this year," Watkins responded, clearly wondering what was going to happen next.
"That's near-term, on total spending," Porter corrected her. "How much on oil, gas, and chemical operations?" she repeated.
"We're gonna be spending..." Watkins answered, then appeared to have some difficulty hearing.
Porter jumped in to make sure there wasn't a nanosecond of dead air time.
"Well according to your annual report, you said you're going to spend sixteen to seventeen billion for oil, gas, and chemical, with another three billion dollars for marketing," Porter told her, pouring roughly 9/10 of the M&Ms into a second identical-sized, but empty jar. "How much is Shell going to spend on renewable energy?"
Oh, dear.
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