Opinion: Oil companies always tell us the same tired tale. And we fall for it.

I had a teacher a while back who taught me the best way to say something unpopular was simply to deny you were saying it. “I’m not saying you’re stupid, but you just fell for the same trick for the 10th time.”
You get the idea.
So, when I read John Sturgeon’s recent commentary about oil taxes — and his assertion “(t)his isn’t about defending corporations” — I could only think of one thing: Mr. Sturgeon was defending corporations (“Don’t turn oil into the next timber industry demise,” March 6).
And of course he was.
That’s because as our roads, schools and health care continue to crumble, Alaska is once again trying to get the oil companies to pay their fair share for our oil. And whenever that happens, the oil corporations trot out familiar names and faces to explain why these big corporations can’t afford to.
It’s a tried and true playbook. Over the past 60 years, Alaskans have repeatedly tried to claw a fair share of our oil wealth from the oil companies. And the message from the oil corporations is always — always — the same: If you tax us, we will leave. That’s all it takes.
It’s a highly effective argument, elegant in its simplicity and brazen in its deceit. But it works because it’s based in fear, and the oil corporations have amassed the economic and political muscle to bully and manipulate our politicians.
We often hear “the system is rigged,” and it most certainly is. But instead of some shadowy, faceless “deep state,” our legal and economic systems are rigged so giant corporations can wrestle more and more money from everyday folks, all while the people running these corporations get more disgustingly rich. It’s not illegal. Big corporations have simply tilted the playing field so sharply to their advantage that ordinary Alaskans and everyday Americans have no chance. It’s designed that way.
Think I’m lying? Try bringing a claim against an oil company that digs up your land or pollutes your water. Think you stand a chance? Spoiler alert: You do not. How about taxes? Big oil corporations have a deep bench of lawyers and accountants who grab every penny for profits. Sure, they sprinkle a few donations here and there, but compared to what they pocket, it’s chump change. All the while, our roads, schools and health care — and the Alaskan families they support — suffer.
Hilcorp provides a great example of the difference between the real world you and I live in and the special privileges of the corporate class.
Hilcorp’s founder and chairman Jeff Hildebrand is worth $10 billion. He has a stable of fancy polo ponies in Houston and flies on private jets to hobnob with other billionaires at polo games in Aspen and Miami. In the wake of some large political donations, Mr. Hildebrand’s wife got an ambassadorship to Costa Rica. Her prior experience included running a doughnut shop. And over the past decade Hilcorp has amassed millions in worker safety and air quality fines, but it’s so rich it just absorbs these violations as business costs and continues on. Even after several workers were killed at Hilcorp facilities, no one went to jail. They just got a slap on the wrist.
The world doesn’t work that way for you or me. I’m a father of two teenagers. Our health insurance costs are through the roof, our schools are closing, and our food, utility and gas prices keep going up. All we see is the corporate class gobbling up more of the pie while everyone else scrambles for the scraps.
Alaska is a resource-rich state, and we Alaskans own our oil. Our budget is in shambles and our schools, roads and health care are broken. But our politicians keep kneeling in fear to these big oil corporations.
“If you tax us, we will leave.”
Maybe the oil corporations want us to think they can have a better go of it in Venezuela or the Middle East or China or Russia.
But I doubt it. Last week, oil companies bid a record $164 million on oil and gas leases in Alaska. It sounds like they like the safety and the predictability of doing business here.
So, maybe it’s time we got a fair share of our oil wealth. Because I’m not saying we’ve been lied to, but …
Bob Shavelson has worked on oil and gas issues in Alaska for the past 30 years. He runs boats and lives with his family in Homer.