7-25-08 by dugan
Today’s defeat in the Senate of
a mild little bill to regulate wild speculative energy markets was a
raw display of oil and financial industry power in Washington. So was
the defeat of a House bill to release some of the most expensive oil in
the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve and immediately replace it with
cheaper, heavier oil. Combined, the votes are a testament to industry
pandering by political Neanderthals–at the expense of the U.S. economy
and consumers.
The Senate bill was not much–just enough to pry
open the lid and light up what really goes on in the lawless markets
that have brought us $4.00-a-gallon gasoline. Such regulation could
have near-immediate effect. Drilling for oil off U.S. coasts and in
Alaskan wilderness, which Republican leaders demanded as part of the
bill, would take 30 years and wouldn’t affect prices one bit.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, normally a pretty buttoned-down type, didn’t mince words:
"Now [opponents] want to give them [the oil companies] a big,
fat, sloppy smooch as they leave office by extending millions of acres
for drilling across the United States and the outer continental shelf.
"It isn’t going to happen."
Why would senators want to do that, aside from all the money and
other blandishments they get while in office from oil companies? (And insurance
companies and drug companies and the health industry and and telecom–all the top lobbying spenders)?
First, think of all those board of director seats waiting to cushion this
year’s electoral losers. And two years after leaving office, they can
cash in even bigger with full-blown lobbying jobs. And finally, these lawmakers can collect millions from industry today for their "leadership committees" and take every dollar with them when they retire. After all, why give up those $200 meals while waiting for the no-lobbying period to pass?