More massive profits

This is all our fault, for not being better "conservers."

Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday it earned $10.36 billion in the April-June period, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company.

The earnings figure was 36 percent above the profit it reported a year ago. High oil prices and the growing global appetite for fuel helped boost the company's revenue by 12 percent to a level just short of a quarterly record. Its shares briefly rose to a new high.

The results topped Wall Street expectations but came in behind Exxon Mobil's record profit of $10.71 billion set in the fourth quarter of 2005.

To offer a little perspective to a number so large, earning $10,360,000,000 over the April-June period equates to earning almost $114 million a day.

How'd you do over the April-June quarter? Better than last year? Better than in 1999?

The earnings report was a cherry on top, happy ending to a party celebrating the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which helped make it all possible.