a CEO.

Note, this thread is about CEO Scott D. Sheffield, not about Bidenomics in general, in case people had a tendency to deflect like libs.

When oil prices hit a peak in 2022, there were some oil executives who colluded with others to keep gas prices high. The FTC did an investigation and went through executive's e-mails and text messages and discovered some new evidence.

Gas prices went up in 2021, and up some more when Russia invaded Ukraine. Then, there were some oil executives who colluded with others to keep prices high.

Fracking started in the U.S. in the mid-2000s, and by the late 2010s, Americans produced more oil than the OPEC (Iran, Iraq, and Saudia Arabia). Since the 1970s, OPEC were the real cartel, which allowed them to set oil prices. That changed in the 2010s. OPEC started getting frustrated with this in 2014, which started a rivalry, as prices of gas was going down. A price war started from 2014-2016, and so in 2017, there were a series of dinners at an oil conference called CERAweek, where OPEC officials and U.S. fracking CEOs sat down and collaborated for the 1st time. So, they colluded, and the price of oil started to go up, until the covid hit. In 2023, the FTC opened an investigation into the largest oil company in the Permian Basin (Texas), Pioneer Natural Resources, which was trying to merge with ExxonMobil. When the FTC digged into the merger, it recovered some shocking e-mails behind oil prices.CEO Scott D. Sheffield was trying to keep oil prices high.The FTC's subpoena revealed Sheffield was in touch with OPEC's top oil heads from around the world. He had tried to get the rest to "cut back" on oil production, in order to keep oil prices high.

During the FTC investigation, 38 Republican senators had wrote the FTC chairwoman a letter asking her to back off. The FTC concluded that Sheffield should not be on the ExxonMobil board of directors, and also banned ExxonMobil from appointing a Pioneer executive for 5 years. So how much money did this cost Americans? A quick estimate showed this decision resulted in $200 billion a year in higher oil prices. As of the end of May 2024, the FTC had recommended Sheffield to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.

I can't wait to see Scott D. Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer, go to prison or get sued by the DOJ for backpay.