Regular readers of this blog know that ExxonMobil and other energy industry companies pay a lot in taxes. But not everybody understands this basic point, particularly politicians who want to target us with even higher levies.

So it was nice to see growing recognition of the tax burden shouldered by the oil and gas industry in The New York Times recently.

In a graphic feature entitled “Across U.S. Companies, Tax Rates Vary Greatly,” the paper examined the federal, state, local and foreign income tax payments from 2007 to 2012 for all companies in the S&P 500.

“The big energy firms paid the most taxes in absolute terms.”

The Times’ conclusion? “The big energy firms paid the most taxes in absolute terms: Exxon $146 billion; Chevron $85 billion; and ConocoPhillips $58 billion.” The Times echoes a March feature in USA Today that noted the “extraordinary amounts” of taxes paid by large companies like ours.

The energy industry also has the highest income tax rate.

The Times’ feature computed the effective income tax rate of the energy industry to be 37 percent, driven by the contributions of the largest oil and gas companies. That 37 percent is well above the average S&P 500 tax rate of about 29 percent. (The paper notes that “one of every seven companies had an effective tax rate lower than ten percent.”)

When you add in the additional income tax liabilities for those years, but which are due in a later period, and our share of equity company income taxes, which The Times feature ignores, ExxonMobil’s effective income tax rate was 45 percent and our total income tax expenses were $190 billion.

Sticklers may point out that The Times says the insurance industry overall has a higher effective tax rate of 51 percent. That is technically true but, the paper notes, that figure is a fluke. That’s because the mammoth losses suffered by a number of insurers since the financial crisis (e.g. $83 billion in losses for AIG) have ended up distorting the overall industry rate. The reality is that “many insurers pay lower-than-average rates,” and only two relatively small insurance companies in the S&P 500 had effective tax rates higher than that of the energy industry.

What our critics often miss

Kudos to The New York Times for highlighting what our critics – including the newspaper’s own editorial page writers – often miss: that our industry makes a tremendous contribution to government revenues. In addition to the income taxes noted above, our business activities contributed over $435 billion more to government coffers in other tax revenues during that same 2007-2012 period.

Those payments come on top of the huge capital investments companies like ExxonMobil make every year, investments that mean jobs and economic activity all over the world.

Counting tax expenses, capital spending and the like, ExxonMobil’s direct economic contribution to the U.S. economy in 2012 alone was $68 billion. That comes to $1.3 billion per week, and we’re proud of that.

We are even prouder that we help provide the supplies of energy that keep the modern economy moving.