9-11-07 by Court
Our source in the industry, Insider, offers these observations about how the oil industry has historically stolen Congress’s and the FTC’s masthead:
As Oilwatchdog.org demands that Rep. Darrell Issa of San Diego release a letter he wrote to the Federal TradeCommission requesting its opinion on the "hot fuel" issue, don’t be surprised if it comes out that Issa didn’t write the letter at all. The draft text or an outline with contact information and addresses was likely supplied by an oil lobbyist. All Issa had to do was have his staff print it on his stationery and hand it back to the oil lobbyist.
When the oil companies are faced with a legislative proposal designed to protect small business or consumers, they routinely have their lobbyists
convince a friendly legislator to issue a written request that the FTC "comment" on the proposal. Then, the FTC issues a response back to the
legislator who immediately turns it over to the American Petroleum Institute (API) in Washington, DC and the Western States Petroleum Association
(WSPA) based in CA. Lobbyists for these front groups and those hired directly by the individual oil companies carry copies door to door to other legislators, reporters, editorial boards, etc claiming "..see, even the FTC says this proposal will not do any good and could actual harm consumers in the long run."
As it was explained to me, the politicians are not necessarily convinced by anything in the letter from the FTC. Its real purpose is to
influence laymen, reporters, and editorial boards. The value of the FTC
letter to those that vote with the oil companies is that the FTC
response provides cover from criticism. A highly successful tactic,
reporters and editorial boards not familiar with the history of the FTC
are influenced and quote the letter widely in opinions. The legislators
voting to support the oil company position often quote the FTC letter
during debates on the proposal claiming they are voting this way because
"….according to the experts at the FTC…" which sounds a lot better
than "…according to the big oil lobbyists….."
This lobbying partnership with the FTC first surfaced when the Reagan
Administration appointed lawyers and others with close ties to the oil
industry to head up what was we used to consider the primary consumer
and competition protection agency. Shortly thereafter allegations
surfaced that the FTC had a group funded by taxpayers whose sole role
was to lobby against consumer initiatives at the federal and state
level. In the face of a threat by certain members of Congress to cut
off its funding, the FTC adopted the policy that it would not intervene
on legislative proposals unless asked by an elected official to comment
on the proposal.
The first time I personally experienced how tight the industry was with
the FTC came during a briefing for those of us who normally worked in
the commercial part of the industry that had been sent to a state
capitol as extra manpower to lobby against a legislative proposal that
would eliminate an exemption for oil companies from consumer protection
laws. The head oil lobbyist outlined nearly to the word the actual
text of the letter to the FTC, the name of the legislator whom he would
have send the letter, and the response that would come back from the
FTC. Since time was of the essence, the oil lobbyist would take a
floppy disk with the text to the office of the legislator so staff could
print it on official stationary. The lobbyist would look up the
legislator and once signed, fax it directly to Washington DC where
another oil lobbyist would walk it through the FTC and fax back the
response. Amazingly, long before any of us even heard about the
internet, it took less than 72 hours and the oil group was packing
copies of the FTC response in our briefcases as we traveled the halls of
the capitol.
Since that time, I’ve personally watched oil lobbyists go to a friendly
legislator to arrange the standard letter to FTC during debates over
legislative proposals in Congress and state capitols across the nation.
While Representative Issa has joined the long list, signers of such
letters are a dime a dozen so to speak. The key is to understand the
value to the oil industry of its relationship with the FTC. To quote
one longtime oil lobbyist, "Without the FTC, we would have never
been able to beat back all these legislative proposals that keep
surfacing every time the price goes up at the pump……."