Smarter Money: Energy Companies Aren't the Enemy

Everyone's taking aim at the oil and gas complex and blaming it for our woes at the pump. We want to blame the refiners for gouging. We want to put the heat on Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote) and Texaco (TX Quote) and Chevron (CHV Quote) and Royal Dutch(RD Quote). We want to force someone to make less money now, so we don't have to pay so much.

What a pile of hooey. So Valero(VLO Quote), after suffering for a decade, finally gets to make some money. So Philips and Unocal (UCL Quote) and Conoco get to have some good earnings. I guess that's what triggers a witch hunt in this country these days.

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Smarter Money: Energy Companies Aren't the Enemy

Last night I pulled up with Keith Bailey, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Williams(WMB Quote), and had a frank discussion with him about how this industry is being falsely demonized. Bailey, if you don't know, has steered his company to a 1,200% return over the last decade, the best performing stock in the group, even better than Enron's(ENE Quote) Ken Lay. Bailey's about making money for shareholders and he has taken this acquirer, explorer and transporter of energy about as far as you can take an oil and gas company. He's always been my kind of guy. ...