Thread by @tessakhan

As Shell and its shareholders enjoy a "momentous year" of profits, families all over the UK are dealing with unbearable pressure as their energy bills soar.

THREAD 🧵
news.sky.com/story/fresh-ca…
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To put Shell's profits in context: they are enough to basically cover the energy bill rise facing every family in the UK (Shell's profits: £12bn. If the price cap goes up by £570 today for 22m households: £12.5bn).
And yet the UK Govt is still bending over backwards for Shell
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That includes unbelievably generous tax treatment, e.g. the UK is the only country in the world in which Shell operates in which it didn't pay tax in 2020. In fact we paid Shell almost £100 million in rebates (all while Shell was laying off workers in the UK)
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And enabling Shell to keep expanding its operations in the UK, to the point that Shell is forecast to spend more on developing new fields and exploration than any other operator in the North Sea
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You'll hear Shell and others claim that they'll use their profits responsibly but the reality is that Shell is dealing out cash to its shareholders and puts just 10% of its overall investment in renewables--the rest goes on oil and gas.
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These companies are committed to getting rich on drilling for oil and gas during a climate crisis and a cost of living crisis driven by our dependency on gas, plain and simple.

Full statement here: stopcambo.org.uk/updates/reacti…

UPDATE: The FT is reporting Shell's adjusted earnings for 2021 — the profit measure most closely tracked by analysts — as £14.2bn.
That's a billion more than the expected total cost of the price rise today.

ft.com/content/ca4fba…