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UK: 160,000-Plus People In Mariupol Have No Power, No Water, No Communication; Oil CEOs On The Defensive Over High Gas Prices; Oklahoma Governor Expected To Sign Near-Total Abortion Ban; DOJ Indicts Russian Oligarch, Seizes Millions Of Dollars, Yacht In Crackdown; DOJ Collecting Evidence On Potential Russian War Crimes In Ukraine. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired April 06, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
MAJ. GEN. PAUL EATON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The -- we need to provide Ukraine everything they've asked for. And that means a gift of expertise to be able to solve the problem, to be able to execute a land bridge into the interior of Mariupol to begin the evacuation.
We need to give them the wherewithal to hold the shoulders of an evacuation route to be able to do that.
We need to provide an additional problem set to Putin and his generals, and that's with a NATO naval force off the coast.
We need to provide the Ukrainian people the vision of capital ships prepared to execute a very lethal attack on any Russian naval assets.
That is an opportunity to provide Putin something to worry about. We can do the same thing as far as a standoff naval force outside of Kaliningrad, outside of Vladivostok.
There's a lot we need to do to provide a worrisome environment to President Putin.
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: General Paul Eaton, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and those ideas with us.
Oil execs in the hot seat today as lawmakers grill them about sky high prices. Is corporate greed to blame?
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[13:36:24]
CABRERA: Today, top oil executives are facing U.S. lawmakers, answering questions about investments in Russia and the high gas prices here at home.
Today, they pledged quickly to cut ties with Russia, and defended their investments in the country, but they denied accusations of price gouging. Right now, the national average for gas is down from March 11th, a
high of $4.33. And you can see it's now $4.16 a gallon today. But look how high it was a year ago.
Today's hearing comes just days after ExxonMobil estimated quarterly profits could total $11 billion. Profits. The highest in a decade.
The company's CEO insisted the jump in profits has nothing to do with price gouging.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARREN WOODS, CHAIRMAN & CEO, EXXONMOBIL: No single company sets the price of oil or gasoline. The market establishes the price based on available supply and the demand for that supply.
Continued investments in new production is the only way to achieve balanced markets and more affordable prices that bring real relief at the pump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Let's discuss with Robert Reich, former labor secretary and professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkley, and Daniel Raimi, an energy policy economist and fellow at Resources for the Future.
Gentlemen, thanks for being with us.
Secretary Reich, your reaction to what we just heard from the head of Exxon essentially saying don't blame us?
ROBERT REICH, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, GOLDMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKLEY & FORMER LABOR SECRETARY: Well, I'd be skeptical, Ana, right? The reason for skepticism is the oil companies are buying back their shares of stock. Last year, the big four bought back $44 billion worth of shares of stock.
Now buying back your share of a stock is completely legal. It does prop up the share prices of your stock. But if you have so much money you're buying back shares of stock, why not use the money, instead, to reduce the price at the pump?
This year, we hear that oil companies, the big -- again, the biggest oil companies, are planning to increase their buybacks to about $74 billion this year. Why not take that $74 billion and simply give it to consumers in terms of lower prices?
This is what we traditionally call profiteering or price gouging. It is -- it should be illegal. There ought to be a windfall profits tax. Why should people be paying at the pump so much money so these companies can essentially prop up their share prices?
CABRERA: Daniel, we know it's complicated, but can you just boil it down? Is greed from oil companies to blame for the high prices right now? DANIEL RAIMI, ENERGY POLICY ECONOMIST & FELLOW, RESOURCES FOR THE
FUTURE: Well, thank you, Ana.
You're right, it is complicated. Viewers at home and Americans, especially low-income Households, are suffering from the high energy prices.
But the finger pointing we're seeing in Congress today from both sides is really shedding more heat than it is light.
There are literally thousands of oil and gas producers in the United States, some of them very large, most very small, and they do not set prices. Oil prices and gasoline prices are really set by global market forces.
Today's high prices are mostly driven by market fundamentals and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Not by oil companies and not by the Biden administration's policies.
The best way to reduce exposure to high oil prices is to gradually reduce oil consumption and move towards an economy that's less reliant on fossil fuels, which have the benefit of addressing climate change.
CABRERA: Sure, but that's not going to improve the situation right now. People have to drive right now. Not everybody has an electric vehicle, right?
[13:40:02]
And so in terms of the shorter-term solution -- let me bump this back to Secretary Reich.
You've advocated in the past for increased production by these oil companies. Do you think that's the answer right now, Secretary?
REICH: No. I've advocated for a movement from oil production to green energy, wind and solar and so on. And the oil companies --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: But right now. But right now, what do you do about the prices? What do you want oil companies to do right now?
REICH: The best thing to do right now -- Sheldon Whitehouse -- under Sheldon Whitehouse and others in the Senate, have introduced a windfall profits tax. That is you tax their windfall profits. They are making huge bundles of money over and above what they are paying for crude oil.
You tax it and you return it to consumers in quarterly payments, every quarter. That's the best thing to do right now.
CABRERA: Daniel, do you see that as a solution?
RAIMI: That may help alleviate some of the short-term pain. I think the Biden administration's efforts to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserves have resulted in some lower prices.
But I think a little history here is actually quite useful. So in the 2010s, the U.S. had multiple boom cycles of drilling in the shale patch. Companies were so successful in increasing production that they lowered prices over the years and most investors lost money.
So investors are now demanding that companies, like those who are testifying today, limit their drilling and focus on only producing from the most profitable sites and deliver a return.
So this is why we are seeing more share buybacks and more of what we call capital discipline in the energy industry. It's because they have not been profitable in recent years and investors are looking for a return to profitability as they are in any other sector of the economy.
CABRERA: But they are making profits. We just reported about Exxon's profit, that it could be record profits, $11 billion for the last quarter.
So that doesn't add up.
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: That just feels like their answer of, oh, well, we don't want to hurt our investors. It seems silly.
(CROSSTALK)
REICH: Well, exactly.
RAIMI: That's some of the --
REICH: There's no point in debating whether companies should have profits. Of course, companies need to have profits. And shareholders want and put pressure on companies to have profits.
But we are in a special situation right now. There's a war going on. A lot of people are being asked to sacrifice.
And what's happening at the gas pump, Americans are paying more than $4 per gallon at the gas pump. But that money is not going to pay for crude oil.
That money, part of it, is going into profits for the oil companies. And they're turning around and buying back their shares of stock.
That is what is called profiteering or gouging. That should not be allowed. And again, a windfall profits tax is the best immediate way of dealing with that.
CABRERA: Several governors have implemented gas tax holidays and a state gas tax averages about 39 cents per gallon nationwide, so subtract that from the price of the pump. That's not bad.
But what do you think of that idea as a solution, Daniel? RAIMI: I think that's a shortsighted solution to a much longer-term
problem of funding the transportation network in the United States.
Transportation funding, including -- especially at the federal level, has fallen well short of what we've needed in recent years. That's because gasoline taxes have been too low both at the federal level and at the state level.
If we want to be serious about addressing our transportation infrastructure and addressing climate change, the answer is not lower gas taxes or gas tax holidays, which do provide relief to consumers at the pump but set major long-term structural problems that we'll have to deal with in the future.
CABRERA: Daniel Raimi and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, thank you both for being with us --
REICH: Thank you.
CABRERA: -- for this discussion.
[13:44:02]
Oklahoma lawmakers just gave the final OK on a near-total abortion ban. Now it's up to the governor to sign the controversial legislation. We have the latest.
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CABRERA: Oklahoma's legislature has just passed a bill that would make performing an abortion a felony. The Republican governor is expected to sign this legislation. If and when he does, it will be the most restrictive abortion law in the country.
CNN's Lucy Kafanov joins us now.
Lucy, this bill far surpasses Texas' so-called Heartbeat Bill. What does it say?
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. Perhaps the only thing that supporters and opponents of the bill agree on is that it's one of the harshest anti-abortion measures in the nation at the moment.
A near-total ban that would make it a felony for doctors and medical professionals to perform abortions, except in cases of life- threatening medical emergencies, with punishments including fines of up to $100,000 and imprisonment of up to 10 years behind bars.
Now this does not provide exceptions in cases of rape and incest.
The Republican governor promising to sign this into law. When he does, without judicial intervention, abortion rights will effectively end in Oklahoma over the summer.
What's happening in Oklahoma will impact women across the region. After Texas Republicans approved their controversial abortion ban, women from the Lone Star state started flocking to Oklahoma for reproductive health services.
Approximately 45 percent of Texas patients who have left the state for abortions have come to Oklahoma for treatment, according to a recent study from the University of Texas at Austin.
This leaves women in the region with extremely limited options for reproductive health.
And of course, Ana, were talking about women who can afford to travel out of state for treatment, who can afford to take time off work to find childcare. If you are poor, and you live in Texas or soon Oklahoma, you could soon be left with virtually no options.
And all of this is part of a broader push by Republican-led states to curtail abortion rights in anticipation of a pending Supreme Court decision on a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The conservative majority on the Supreme Court, if they uphold that law, it could result in Roe v. Wade being overturned or substantially weakened.
And that has prompted left-leaning states like Colorado to enact laws enshrining women to the right of having an abortion regardless of what happens at the federal level -- Ana?
CABRERA: Lucy Kafanov, thank you for your reporting.
[13:49:55]
Meantime, Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine and is doing something about it. How the DOJ is working to identify those responsible for the vile attacks.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: It does not matter how far you sail your yacht. It does not matter how well you conceal your assets. It does not matter how cleverly you write your malware or hide your online activity.
The Justice Department will use every available tool to find you, disrupt your plots, and hold you accountable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Attorney General Merrick Garland announcing new actions to disrupt and prosecute criminal Russian activity, like the indictment of a Russian oligarch, seizing a yacht owned by an ally of Vladimir Putin, and disrupting a global botnet controlled by the Russian military intelligence agency.
CNN justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider, joins us now.
Jessica, talk us through all of this.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, this is really amounting to a rapid succession of crackdowns. And it's really the result of some quick work by the KleptoCapture Task Force. It was formed by the DOJ just this month.
And the goal of the team is twofold. They're renewing their efforts to prosecute the illegal activity of these Russian oligarchs. And they're also enforcing sanctions that have been imposed on these oligarchs in recent years.
Today, the DOJ unsealed the first criminal charges against Russian oligarch, Konstantin Malofeyev. He had sanctions imposed on him years ago when Russia invaded Crimea.
And now he's charged with attempting to evade those sanctions by working with other co-conspirators to acquire and run media outlets across Europe. So that's one thing.
DOJ and FBI today also announced that they thwarted what could have been a potential large-scale cyberattack in Ukraine. And they thwarted it by disrupting a botnet they said was being controlled by the GRU units, the Russian military intelligence agency.
And this all comes on top of what we saw on Monday when U.S. officials worked with partners in Spain to actually seize a Russian oligarch's $90 million yacht.
[13:54:57]
So we're seeing this rapid succession of crackdowns from U.S. officials. And they say they're doing this to send a message to enablers of the Russian regime.
And they also say they're renewing their focus to target really the illegal activity that's been going on, perhaps for years, of these Russian oligarchs who have significant influence.
Finally, Ana, a bit of a separate matter, Ana. DOJ also announced they're assisting European counterparts in collecting evidence for potential war crimes prosecutions related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In fact, DOJ officials, they spent recent days meeting with prosecutors from Eurojust and Europol.
So there has been a lot of work from the DOJ and the FBI really very quickly here. And they say this is just the beginning. A lot to come in the days and weeks ahead here -- Ana?
CABRERA: Jessica Schneider, thank you.
That does it for us today. Thanks so much for being here. I'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place. Until then, join me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.
The news continues right after a quick break.
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