7-29-08 by dugan
Alaska being the closest thing in the U.S. to an oil nation, it
didn’t take long to find a connection between newly indicted Sen. Ted
Stevens and British-owned BP, a major driller on Alaska’s North Slope
oilfields that reported record profits today.
It’s pretty simple: VECO, the oil engineering company that allegedly
did about $250,000 worth of free construction work on Stevens’ Alaska
vacation home, was also providing major oilfield services to BP as late as last year.
Last year, VECO’s top executives pleaded guilty to multiple bribery
charges. Stevens wasn’t named in that case, but a slew of state
legislators–including the former state Senate leader (who is Ted
Stevens’ son, Ben)–were implicated. Unsurprisingly, VECO was soon
bought by a bigger company at a bargain price.
It doesn’t stop there. Alaska’s only Congressman, Rep. Don Young, has spent more than $1 million on legal bills in the past year–but has so far escaped indictment. (Alaska does have a major politician with no apparent oil on her
hands, Gov. Sarah Palin. But she’s being investigated for a possible abuse of power in
firing the state’s public safety chief, allegedly for failing to
dismiss a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with Palin’s
sister.)
VECO was just one of the hundreds of oil-industry companies doing
business in Alaska and seeking favors from its politicians. But it may
have been the stupidest. If VECO had spent the money on a top-notch
political lawyer and a lobbying firm, it would have learned the rules.
Don’t hand out cash or services directly to the lawmakers. Hire them on contracts. Hold fund-raisers for them, to let them know who’s really bringing in the bucks. Make sure wobblers know about your influence. In fact, VECO’ CEO did all of this as well, as detailed by the Anchorage Daily News. Hire the
spouse or a child or a nephew of your target. Pay lavishly for minimal
contract work. If the relative later "loaned" money to Dad or Auntie in
the state legislature, VECO’s hand would have been less visible. As it
is, even Stevens hasn’t been federally indicted for taking a big gift,
but for lying repeatedly about it to investigators.
Alaska is seeing on a small scale the kind of overt
corruption that infests places like Nigeria and Iraq–which, like
Alaska, get most of their tax revenue from oil. Alaska not being a
nation-state, visible corruption may not go unpunished. But there’s a
reason that the oil industry continues to get large-scale national
public subsidies like undeserved "royalty relief,"
that come at the expense of the national good. Or why the industry easily kills legislation it opposes in a state like California.
A cleaner environment
isn’t the only cleanup that would result from reducing U.S. consumption
of oil.