Post by bot on May 23, 2004 0:14:53 GMT -5
Newsgroups: alt.politics
Date: 2004-02-20 14:22:12 PST
The Center for Public Integrity has done an expose of the corruption
in the Bush Administration's and Congress' energy bill, which will be
up for a vote again this year after it failed last year. The
Republicans have taken the majority of the energy corporations' money,
but the Democrats, too, are complicit. For an excellent read, see the
article at this link
www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=549&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
Excerpt:
[begin quote]
Special Report
The Politics of Energy: Oil & Gas
How a gusher of giveaways to oil and gas industry was crafted in
Congress
By Bob Williams and Kevin Bogardus
(WASHINGTON, December 15, 2003)—The sweeping energy bill now pending
in Congress offers a geyser of new tax breaks and other government
goodies for energy companies and related industries. Although the
1,200-page bill stalled out in the Senate in November, legislative
backers have sworn to revive it early in the 2004 session of Congress.
Not surprisingly, the well-connected oil and gas industry—which has
been among the leading contributors to the presidential campaigns of
George W. Bush as well as other Republican candidates and political
committees—stands to reap the biggest bonanza should the legislation
eventually become law.
Since 1998, oil, gas and related services companies on the Fortune
1000 list gave $13.9 million to Republicans, compared to $3.2 million
to Democrats—a ratio of more than four-to-one—according to figures
compiled by the Center for Public Integrity.
In many ways, the $30 billion energy legislation is a classic example
of money, influence and hardball politics at their worst—or
best—depending on your point of view. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona
Republican who helped Democrats temporarily sink the
Republican-written legislation in November, dryly dubbed it "the
No-Lobbyist-Left-Behind Act."
Even the conservative National Review editorialized that the bill was
"pages of special-interest giveaways, almost devoid of worthwhile
reforms."
Indeed, the bill seems to contain something to benefit just about
every sector of the energy industry that bothered to ask. There were
billions of dollars of subsidies for clean coal technology for
utilities along with revisions to the Clean Air Act that would save
them billions more; for the nuclear industry, there was the renewal of
its federally subsidized catastrophic insurance plan and tax credits
to build up to six new nuclear power plants.
But no group would get more than the oil and gas industry, which
secured everything from the elimination of royalty payments for oil
wells on public lands to a legislative shield from an estimated $29
billion in lawsuits the petroleum industry is facing over a
cancer-causing gasoline additive that has leached into the groundwater
of hundreds of communities nationwide. In addition to such big ticket
items, the legislation contains dozens of lesser provisions benefiting
oil and gas companies, large and small—many inserted by legislators at
the behest of industry lobbyists or individual companies back home.
Overall, the new tax breaks in the latest version of the energy bill
were pegged at about $23.5 billion by Congress's Joint Committee on
Taxation. There is also another $5.4 billion in grants, subsidies and
loan guarantees.
But critics say those figures only represent a fraction of the true
cost of the legislation.
[end quote]
There are additional articles in the series about the energy bill
corruption at this site:
www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/home.asp
Date: 2004-02-20 14:22:12 PST
The Center for Public Integrity has done an expose of the corruption
in the Bush Administration's and Congress' energy bill, which will be
up for a vote again this year after it failed last year. The
Republicans have taken the majority of the energy corporations' money,
but the Democrats, too, are complicit. For an excellent read, see the
article at this link
www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=549&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
Excerpt:
[begin quote]
Special Report
The Politics of Energy: Oil & Gas
How a gusher of giveaways to oil and gas industry was crafted in
Congress
By Bob Williams and Kevin Bogardus
(WASHINGTON, December 15, 2003)—The sweeping energy bill now pending
in Congress offers a geyser of new tax breaks and other government
goodies for energy companies and related industries. Although the
1,200-page bill stalled out in the Senate in November, legislative
backers have sworn to revive it early in the 2004 session of Congress.
Not surprisingly, the well-connected oil and gas industry—which has
been among the leading contributors to the presidential campaigns of
George W. Bush as well as other Republican candidates and political
committees—stands to reap the biggest bonanza should the legislation
eventually become law.
Since 1998, oil, gas and related services companies on the Fortune
1000 list gave $13.9 million to Republicans, compared to $3.2 million
to Democrats—a ratio of more than four-to-one—according to figures
compiled by the Center for Public Integrity.
In many ways, the $30 billion energy legislation is a classic example
of money, influence and hardball politics at their worst—or
best—depending on your point of view. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona
Republican who helped Democrats temporarily sink the
Republican-written legislation in November, dryly dubbed it "the
No-Lobbyist-Left-Behind Act."
Even the conservative National Review editorialized that the bill was
"pages of special-interest giveaways, almost devoid of worthwhile
reforms."
Indeed, the bill seems to contain something to benefit just about
every sector of the energy industry that bothered to ask. There were
billions of dollars of subsidies for clean coal technology for
utilities along with revisions to the Clean Air Act that would save
them billions more; for the nuclear industry, there was the renewal of
its federally subsidized catastrophic insurance plan and tax credits
to build up to six new nuclear power plants.
But no group would get more than the oil and gas industry, which
secured everything from the elimination of royalty payments for oil
wells on public lands to a legislative shield from an estimated $29
billion in lawsuits the petroleum industry is facing over a
cancer-causing gasoline additive that has leached into the groundwater
of hundreds of communities nationwide. In addition to such big ticket
items, the legislation contains dozens of lesser provisions benefiting
oil and gas companies, large and small—many inserted by legislators at
the behest of industry lobbyists or individual companies back home.
Overall, the new tax breaks in the latest version of the energy bill
were pegged at about $23.5 billion by Congress's Joint Committee on
Taxation. There is also another $5.4 billion in grants, subsidies and
loan guarantees.
But critics say those figures only represent a fraction of the true
cost of the legislation.
[end quote]
There are additional articles in the series about the energy bill
corruption at this site:
www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/home.asp