Energy company manager says 12% profit isn’t
YORK - “We in the in
dustry don’t get invited out
much these days,” quipped
speaker Chapin Burks to his
York audience. Questions
aimed at the regional
manager of public affairs for
the Exxon Company
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following his presentation
should have told him why.
Berks was key speaker at
the 17th annual Agri-
Business seminar, spon
sored jointly by the York
Extension service and the
area Chamber of Commerce
You must start with a soil test to determine your
soil nutrient levels
Your crop rotation,
manure applications
account.
Your yield goal must be established and
removals determined.
You need a dealer with flexibility and knowledge
to be able to balance Your program.
on last Thursday at Avalong
Farms Restaurant. Focus of
the day-long meeting was on
energy.
Members of the audience
of 150 fired questions at the
Exxon representative,
seeking explanations for the
THIS MAN DOES!
tillage practices,
must be taken
ORGANIC PLANT
FOOD CO.
record profits being
declared repeatedly for the
past several quarters by the
oil industry. The Exxon
corporation set new records
with over four billion dollars
in earnings during 1979.
Burks said Exxon’s profits
are five cents on every
dollar, or four cents on each
gallon of product sold; and
the massive profits simply
reflect the huge volume of
business done.
Of the five cents profit per
dollar, two cents is paid back
to investors and three cents
goes for reinvestment.
Return on the corporate
investment is about 12
percent, which Burks
claimed is lower than the
return on investment for
most manufacturing con
cerns.
“At best, we are decades
away from non-depleting
forms of energy,” he told the
farmers and agri-business
representatives. One step
toward filling the short
supply of petroleum
products is a synthetic fuels
plant being constructed in
Texas, a joint effort bet
ween the government,
2313 Norman Rd., Lancaster, Pa
Ph: 717-397-5152
Exxon and other oil cor
porations.
Snythetic plants take
between six and eight years
to build and cost four billion
dollars each. Almost 370
billion dollars would be
needed to fulfill the
projected snythetic needs,
thus eliminating synthetics
as a ready candidate to ease
fuel supplies in the early
‘Bo’s.
Critics of the fuel industry
have accused the oil com
panies of shipping domestic
crude to Japan, pumped
from Alaska via the pipeline
to the West coast harbors.
Burks demed that such
action has ever taken place,
and said that, by law,
Alaskan crude must remain
mthe country.
Coal and nuclear have the
capabilities to outproduce
the demand, experts believe,
but environmental concerns
are slowing the use of both,
especially the building of
new nuclear plants. Usage of
coal is expected to triple in
twenty years, while natural
gas will decline.
A large share of the coal
tonnage will likely come
from the Western states.
ancf
into
Exxon Corporation public affairs manager
Chapin Burks says the oil industry is not earning
unreasonable profits.
crop
incaster Farming, Saturday, February 2,1980—A17
/ ©EASILY INSTALLED
ll Vl5OO STATE STREET,
CAMP HILL, PA 17011
PHONE (717) 761-1863
excessive
where the black rock
deposits are lower m sulfur,
creating less pollution
problems, and more easily
obtained through surface
mining.
Solar, highly acclaimed as
an energy alternate, has an
unlimited potential if the
costs, installation, and
servicing needs were less
costly. Burks noted if every
new home between now and
the year 2000 were totally
solar-run, it would stjll
replace only two percent of
the nation’s energy needs.
Extension speaker John
Broekett told farmers that
their management of energy
is now becoming almost as
important a priority as labor
management.
Broekett is a farm
management specialist with
Penn State who’s made
extensive tune and labor
studies on farm jobs and how
they relate to management
and productivity.
“One hundred percent of
farmers need to soil test,”
insists Broekett, citing
fertilizer and limited spray
programs as one place
(Turn to Page A 18)