That's the Government's Job

What happens when you hit up an oil company for a charitible donation?

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Wisconsin has cold winters. Heating fuel prices are reaching record rates. Oil companies had record profits. So Wisconsin's Consumer Protection Department figured, maybe those oil companies would donate some of those record profits to help people out.

The Department's head honcho sent a letter to five major oil companies. Here's what he got back:

Mark Holstein, British Petroleum: "BP further believes that it is the role of government to determine the funding level for specific programs through allocation of its general revenues. BP has not made direct contributions to programs such as this and declines to do so now."

Margaret Ward, Chevron: "The government's role is to best determine the priority and the funding of programs such as LIHEAP. Congress funding and prioritization of other similar programs should be completely independent of oil industry earnings."

ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips had similar attitudes of passing the buck to government.

Shell asked for an extension. (Madison.com)