Exxon may have little control over the price of oil, but news of its first quarter profits still stings.

While consumers are paying ever-escalating prices - the national average cost for a gallon hit $3.90 Friday and in Connecticut it's over $4 a gallon - Exxon announced quarterly profits of $11 billion, up 69 percent from a year ago.

And it's not only Exxon. Other oil companies are prospering, too. Shares of Chevron rose 1.7 percent after the company said Friday that its net income rose 36 percent, its best quarter since 2008.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC reported $8.78 billion in first-quarter profits, up 60 percent from a year ago. BP PLC's quarterly earnings rose 16 percent to $7.2 billion. ConocoPhillips said net income grew 43 percent to $3 billion and Occidental Petroleum Corp. said earnings climbed 46 percent to $1.55 billion.

Those earnings rub salt in consumers' wounds.

As a bit of salve, we welcome U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney's three-point plan to lower gas prices, delivered using the backdrop of a Coventry dairy farm. Like other Connecticut businesses and individuals, the Hytone Farm is feeling the hurt of the gas price spike.

Rep. Courtney proposed regulatory steps to rein in oil speculators, expanding responsible domestic exploration, and increasing investment in research and development of new energy technologies.

President Obama, meanwhile, has ordered an investigation into possible market manipulation of oil prices. And last week, in a letter to Congressional leaders, the president called for repealing $4 billion a year in oil company "subsidies" tied to intangible drilling costs.

Allowed as an immediate deduction - rather than amortizing the cost of development over a period of time - provides oil companies with cash flow in an industry where The Wall Street Journal reported, "the risks are huge and returns are realized over many years, if not decades."

But just how "huge" are those risks when companies like Exxon are reporting such exorbitant profits? Exxon and the other oil companies may not control the price of gasoline, but they are benefitting from its escalating price. The president's proposal, as well as the ideas of Rep. Courtney, deserve serious consideration.