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Guest Post: Big Oil Funding U.S. Politics
Submitted by Daniel J. Graeber of OilPrice.com,
U.S. Rep. John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, received nearly twice as much financial support from donors tied to the energy sector than did the next-closest recipient, a report from the National Wildlife Federation finds. The 20-page report highlights the role it says oil companies play in U.S. politics, stating energy companies are working behind the scenes on Capitol Hill to influence legislation in favour of oil, natural gas and coal policies. The NWF report finds that the current 112th U.S. Congress has voted one out of every five times against legislation drafted in favour of environmental issues.
Boehner, R-Ohio, in a press conference this week, spoke out against a stagnant unemployment climate in the United States. The U.S. Labour Department, in an early September report, showed the unemployment rate dropped slightly in August to 8.1 percent, down 0.2 percent from its July level. That's the 43rd consecutive month, however, that the unemployment rate was above 8 percent, the longest period since World War II. The House speaker said this was a sign of President Barack Obama's failure to lead.
On Friday, Boehner led the House of Representatives in passing the so-called Stop the War on Coal Act, a measure that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. It's unlikely to pass through the Senate.
"We’re the Saudi Arabia of coal and the president wants to shut down coal production and the use of coal in the United States so that we can export it to our economic competitors around the world," said Boehner in a statement. It's a jobs issue, he said.
The report from the NWF, released on the eve of the House vote, finds that Oxbow Corp., a private company focused on mining and marketing of coal, natural gas and petroleum, donated more than $80,000 to Boehner's campaign since 2010. The NWF explains that Oxbow was founded by William Koch, whose twin billionaire brothers are among the largest corporate financiers of the U.S. Congress. According to information NWF gathered from The Center for Responsive Politics, energy companies like Oxbow gave more than $814,000 to Boehner's campaign during the current Congress.
The NWF's report, however, is non-partisan in its effort to showcase the energy sector's monetary influence over U.S. politics. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, ranked No. 2 on the NWF's list. Manchin, ahead of Friday's vote in the House, said it was clear that "the EPA has overstepped its bounds" in terms of action that could target the coal industry. Of the top 10 lawmakers listed in the NWF report, however, Manchin is the only Democrat and received $480,050 compared to Boehner's $814,060.
The NWF states that the House of Representatives, led by Boenher and his fellow Republicans, voted 109 times since the start of 2011 to weaken environmental laws or some of the safety regulations in the oil industry.
Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the NWF, said the report provides a "behind the curtains" look into U.S. politics.
"America has been losing ground in the climate fight, and much of this is due to gridlock within our political system," he writes. "The resulting inertia is sustained by oil, gas, and coal companies that have spent more than a billion dollars on campaign contributions, public advertising, and lobbying in the past two years alone."
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Is there such a thing as "small oil" anymore?
Yes, but it's use is exclusively reserved to precede the words "leak" or "spill".
Obama’s Oil Spill
http://www.factcheck.org/2008/03/obamas-oil-spill/
Obama biggest recipient of BP cash
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html
Good thing "Big Gold" lobbies for Constitutional monie...
Oh wait....
I presume that the National Wildlife Association is all about the welfare of animals like the National Education Association is all about the welfare of children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-piPkgAUo0w
Big oil must be scared the magic negro will nationalize them after the election.
Get real. He does what the money asks him to do.
Just got back from Germany and talked to people there about this issue. They have the equivealent of 20 nuclear power plants worth of solar power. We on the other hand, lead the world in in big oil advertising against solar and renewable energy (153 million a year, enough for quite a few solar plants).
But of course, climate change is a hoax, like evolution... Poor US.
$814k to buy a Boner and all they got was a lousy politician. It's a crying shame I tell ya...
The sun a source of energy?
Why that's ridiculous!
If this were true, it would be all over the TV.
Just Googled " Sun" and they said I was the source of skin cancer. We must destroy the Sun!!!
Oh now you've done it.
Do you know what THAT shit is going to cost me?
Please stop giving them ideas
The earth has been around for 4.5 billion years. Fact. In that time there have been at least 20 Ice ages where at least 30 % of the earth was covered by glaciers. Fact. Man has only been recording temperatures for the last 100 years. Any stat 101 student would tell you that the sample data needed to get any statistical meaning from 4.5 billion years would be greater than 100,000 data samples. Not to mention that the data sample that we have are just for the last 100 years. In that time frame the amount of man made CO2 has increased exponentialy year after year yet average temperature has not. Mankind is much more threatend by the next ice age, which according to the knuckle heads like you will be caused by global warming.
Do you practice at being a shill or did it come naturally...
Your argument is flawed but I think that you don't care that it is...
Big Oil buys politicians. I wonder if they buy scientists?
Would you like for me to provide a list?
You can start with Lindzen at MIT....
It is almost impossible you're that dumb.
Nature is far too complex and clever to be described by CO2 or temperature probe readings alone.
I don't understand the controversy over the energy company donations.
Why would anyone expect the industry to support the Obamacon policies of making energy costs skyrocket. All because of some religious conviction that there is a Mother Earth. Dems have practically shut down mining, have regulated over 100 paid for power plants into closing, refused to allow transportation pipelines to be constructed, and are attempting to end the development of the shale gas reserves.
I like low cost electricity and oil and gas. I don't want some idealogue to have their Boot on the Throat of the companies which deliver it for me.
The entire CO2 connection is the greatest fraud of all time. Terribly expensive nonsense that will reverse 100 years of economic progress. The avowed plan to reduce US energy consumption by 80% by year 2050 would reduce the country to a living standard of Haiti. Thanks Obama.
Looks like a troll wondered in....
Germany is building 17 coal and 29 gas fired plant. May be solar power hoax is not working quite well for Germany.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/germany-building-17-new...
Could it be that they are planning on dropping their nukes ASAP? Naw, it couldn't be that, could it?
Have fun replacing nukes with solar power.
Where did I say or imply that?
Could it be that the coal and NG plants are to replace the nukes? Or did your logic fail you on that point?
By the measure of turning useless fiat into real infrastructure, the German solar plan has been a stunning success...
If Germany produces enough solar energy as 20 nuke plants, then I'd say Germany has already reduced their nuke plants.
Luckily, Seattle is not in Germany. Otherwise, Microsoft and all its employees would have to move to the Mojave Desert to run its server network and businesses !
Which magic Negro? Barack or Maxine?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3I-PVVowFY
Yeah! It SUCKS that the funding of everything must take place within the established money system, which axiomatically destroys whatever is being funded. Therefore, none of the envirornmental groups, that are big enough, can be trusted anymore, precisely for that reason.
Mr. Lennon I don't understand why anyone would junk you for that comment. Oh well here's another interesting tidbit no conflict of interest here hahaha
Matt Damon’s Anti-Fracking Movie Financed by Oil-Rich Arab Nation
The same Global Elite Oligarchy control "big" everything. Oil, Media, Banking and Finance, Food, etc, even "big " politics. Big Oil is but a tentacle, of the giant vampire squid that runs the world.
People have to wake up and the entire system must be changed and decentralized, or prepared to ruled for eternity peasants.
It always seems like a sci fi novel to me. Ultimately, the powers would go global and use lots of technical tricks to spy, lie and fry any elected puppet who didn't do their bidding
So, he got paid to blow the well?
Just as I thought.
And how much does NWF spend on lobbying...........???
National Wildlife Federation Action is a left-leaning political action committee aimed at providing resources "to hold their elected officials accountable to protecting wildlife for our children's future." It has raised money exclusively in support of Democrats running for political office.
http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C90009994&cyc...
Total Independent Expenditures: $277,931
For Democrats: $248,312
Against Democrats: $0
For Republicans: $0
Against Republicans: $29,619
Total Electioneering Communications: $0
All $248,312 went to Democrat Martin Heinrich, New Mexico Congressman.
Nice info. Not like they don't have a political agenda either. How about we start with John Kerry allowing that wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts. And how about Al Gore sells all his mansions and personal jet and moves into a cardboard box.
Big Environmental spent $75mm +/- on lobbying from 2009-12
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=Q11&year=2012
Well they sure the fuck got nowhere the return that the TBTF and fossil fuel interests got for their donations....
Oh yeah, your number is utter builshit....
Adding up the years 2009-2012 on the website he linked I get 74m. Not utter bullshit, but misleading when presented out of context.
Electric utilities spent 77m lobbying in 2012 alone. Oil and gas companies spent 71m in 2012. They spent about twice that much in each of the previous 4 years.
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indus.php?id=E&year=2012
The environmental lobby is tiny compared to other sectors.
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=2012&indexType=c
leak spill and olive
redpill
Willie Nelsons homemade biodiesel.
Watch Out!
Spam Below!
Yes, it happens on teenagers faces.
The spread from that level to the next above is an unimaginable chasm.
And there is no such thing as 'Big Oil' in this idiots article! Unless you think some outfit called Oxbow Corp is big oil and that $80,000 to John Boehner is big money. Hell the National Wildlife Federation probably spent 10 times that to prevent the "National Wrestling Federation from using the acronym NWF on its TV show!
.
Exactly. The article is an execrable piece of crap on the roadside. The headline portends another bilious diatribe against "big oil". It then goes off on a tangent to report the obvious: the Koch brothers, whose stinky fingers also happen to be in coal, buy politicians.
If this is the "quality" of writing one can expect from oilprice.com, it won't be long before AnAnonymous is writing for them.
Hence the term Koch-suckers...
The integrity of the Panda must be maintained....
Selective enforcement Bitchez.
No...but there is "my name is small oil and I'm now a billionaire because of stupid big oil." T Boone Pickens is one name you can Google. He's happier than a pig in shit given the soaring price of nat gas. Dollars to donuts he endows a chairman of an Econ Department at his favorite University in Oklahoma as a consequence of certain "volatility issues" related to said "thingy." (a profession you all call a pathetic joke btw.) if he was really smart who tell the students to take the class...by attending it! The other guy is Harold Hamm. He was the proverbial "crazy rich guy" buying up shale deposits in North Dakota back in the 90's when "the goo was worthless." why it's worth so much now is a darn good question
Good! Who wants $10 oil and a wrecked economy? That's right, Obama in his 2nd term.
The "force" is strong with this one.
If I am going to be involved in such a dialectic I will point out there is no such thing as clean coal.
"Clean coal" is like healthy HFCS.
Drink your Gatorade.
To clairify, $10 gas and cap and tax.
Baseball cap?
We need more clarifications.
Oh. My car was likin' the sound of $10 oil.
Well, I could go for the first part...
Oooh, ooh, I know - I know!
What is: the people who will own the debt that WWIII will create?
Do I win at the internets??
HappyCamper
Dude, you do understand the movement has been toward European pricing on everything.
Doesn't matter who holds office TPTB has a long term plan.
Get used to it.
What's the goal behind it? European pricing == heavily taxed on everything.
The Goal is a New World Order where we are all ruled like slaves by dear leaders who know what's best for us. A glorious world for them they will share the gains you will share the pains. Take Obama for example he wants to redistribute your money but he isn't redistributing his own millions his own brother lives in a hut and is dirt poor his illegal alien aunt lives in subsidized housing. That tells you all you need to know about how a NWO will work out in reality.
Clinton, Quigley, and the New World Order
Central Bankers Inflate Fiat While Plans for One World Currency Are Finalized
If you want a vision of the future, imagine eating Nancy Pelosi's corn chute - forever.
Ten dollar oil certainly wouldn't wreck the economy.... Maybe you meant gasoline?
Obama ain't gonna wreck anything that isn't already wrecked, and if you think Mittens can fix anything you should seek professional counselling....
Obama's quite the character he gets paid off from Oil companies while at the same time he gets money from Environmentalist's and the Hollywood crowd.
Obama Doing All He Can to Stop America From Being Energy Independent: Now Targeting FrackingLast April obama targeted Shale
Kiplinger’s:
Why leave anything to risk with free markets when you can just buy your representatives?
Heard from a recruitment consultant that a lot of trading activity/companies are moving towards "supply chain" kind of model.
Just like how it should be in a monopolistic/socialist state.
Note: Trust, they will find a way to convice you that there is a market and you have a choice AND Freedom.
You have a choice...
...between olive drab and gray Mao fatigues.
...between being tracked by Facebook or Google.
..between buying physical gold and having it confiscated or having your pension fund rehypothecated.
...between Soilent Green or GMO whatever.
1. Olive
2. Google. I like making awkward poses when the gmaps photo car drives by.
3. Gold... except for that horrible boating accident.
4. Soilent Green pairs nicely with a bold Cabernet.
paper or plastic.
No shit Sherlock
Makes sense - Ohio has a huge Utica Shale oil/gas play so why wouldn't Boehner get donations from the O&G plays? Every politician with the excpetion of Ron and Rand are bought and sold everyday.
stateside
Rand Paul is no-different from the rest, a fucking disingenuous leech who has already been bought by the Kochs....
Here, let's just make a headline template that covers ALL cases.
Big _______ Funding U.S. Politics.
There, now that I've taken care of the loose ends, I have to wonder, just who still doesn't understand this equation?
"Barriers to Entry," bitchez!
Response template:
Fuck _______ !
Actually,
The Banksters that own the oil companies fund and own the D.C District of Criminals campaigns and politics. Lock, stock and barrel.
Okay.
Its not "Bayner".
Its not "Bainer"
Its "Boner"
For fuck's sake!
no one cared that the lord of putt got millions from his democrat bankers and proceeded to do ,well nothing. laundered money from over seas illegal credit card scams, ah dont worry ....corzine a billion or two..move along looky loos.
but! someone got money from a oil company....oh noes. all those millions to obama cronies for fake green jobs, no worry. so you got oil money. damn those traitor repoopicans
this corrupt and facist democrat party must be destroyed. the repubs are idiots but the criminal world wide ring known as democrat/nazis must be ELIMINATED
Being half right means you are half wrong.
pods
Both parties do suck I agree. But if the Republicans are shit, the Democrats are diarrea.
We're all up to our necks in shitsand, and you still believe there are two different parties?
Cherished illusions die hard, I guess.
Of all politicos 85-90% are mix and match....
10-15% are evangelical whackjobs that want to infringe upon my personal freedoms and want to return the nation to the pre-Enlightement days. The thing is that these bastards are different and they all happen to essentially 100% Republican...
but I agree that 100% are whores, no illiusion about that...
1% are right wing chicken hawk Likudnik Jews, and they have obtained more power than roughly 47% of the population.
They dont call it the 'petrodollar' for nothing
Maybe because "Big Oil" (coal and natgas) knows that it's a waste of time to talk to Democrats about energy, unless, that is, it is a Democrat like Manchin whose state's whole economy hinges on coal.
How smart are these guys? I mean really. Romney insists on self-immolation via his vocal chords. If Big Oil is backing the RNC, then they picked a loser. I'm no Obama fan, but I know a lame, doped-up hack in the running when i see one, and that's Romney. Big Oil/Big banking needs a false flag, but they can't get their shit together. Well, they have ONE MONTH. Either they are really this stupid, which is good news, or they are do deviouis and their plans run so subtly deep, we are all fucked.
Oil has both parties. So does big banking. There's nothing for them to worry about.
Coal and natgas can't be grouped in with oil. They hate each other, and the lobbies are working against each other. Currently natgas is winning, as coal plants are being converted into natgas since it's so much cheaper.
Aren't corporations people?
yes, and just like people, when they get too big and fat, it causes a lot of problems for the rest of us
.
There's a subtle difference. People are owned, corporations own.
Big Oil is stuck with Romney because the alternatives were even worse....
Or did you forget that Perry, Cain, Bachmann and Santorum were either incompetent or certified whackadoos....
Sorry, RP never had a chance...
$5.50-$6 gas by Feb/2013
In other news, today, somewhere, Alan Dershowitz spent all his money on moonpies and penny whistles, and thought a lot about Israel, and just how unaccountably swell it is being Jewish.
down vote away ya bumbaclot sucka mc's....
http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2006/05/alan-dershowitz-plagiarist-liar-and.html
I mean, it's like - not news, a thing you'd take for granted - get it?
Honestly, if we can't make fun of a lying, plagiarizing, racist, Jewish Supremacist shitbag who spends his life proving Harvard is half a farce... why, what can we make fun of?
Racist!
Alan Dershowitz is not a race, he's a religion, you contemptible twat.
Take your unremitting hate and ignorance over to Stormfront or Daily Kos where it belongs.
A criminal enterprise masquerading as a religion and a race.
zh and the trolls are out in force. Sophism, hate farce, and contempt of truth. What an insult to those who provide the information on this blog.
The number of knuckle walkers has increased of late, hasn't it...
When I was fuckin' your mamma in her sweet ass, she told me that she reckoned you'd engaged in what's known as an 'ad hominem' - a fallacy rather than an argument.
Why not come to New York and show me how to drag knuckles?
I'll make ye famous...
Are you actually trying to bait me?
Don't flatter yourself...
"the president wants to shut down coal production and the use of coal in the United States"
Why do they say stuff like this, as if they know what the president "wants", or that the president "wants" things that he's not telling us, etc.? How do they know the president "wants" such things? How could they possibly know? It's like saying John Boehner wants to have sex with a giraffe. It's an informationally null statement. It is much more effective to say that the president's policies will have the effect of killing coal production in the U.S. Such statements do not depend on ESP.
They know, ya turd, because Obama said so himself in an interview...Get your head out of your ass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4
You must get your news from the in depth probing coverage at MSNBC.
"Dick" has been ordered to blow up anything connected to the economy.
What a tool.
Boss! We found a guy who will terminate USA!
Who is he?
A gay muslim guy raised by communists. We faked all his identity documents. Nobody will ever suspect him!
Damn. That's all you got? OK, he will have to do.
.
I knew Cheney was involved somehow.
Ms. Boehner wondered why he kept insisting she call him Melman
"Losing ground in the climate fight" ?!?! What the hell does that mean? How about we develop every single hydrocarbon asset we can and flip our balance of payments in our favor, that will change the complexion of the markets. Unfortunately, I am not sure that our economy can get by over the next 7-10 years for that to happen.
Is the author really believing that money given by oil companies to politicians is the great travesty which is preventing our ability to move to a green economy? Get a clue socialist tool.
Drill baby drill.
Drill, baby, drill is the only choice.
Once a well starts producing, the first year it outputs XXXX barrels per day and IT WILL NEVER AGAIN BE THAT HIGH. That decline is relentless and the only way to address it is to drill another hole, and another and another.
But even if you do, you eventually, soon, can't keep up with that grinding, inexorable decline. In fact, if you think carefully about it you'll realize that every hole you drill is another source of decline to be made up next year. The declines are additive negatively.
See the article on the Bakken over at the Drum?
you (and your water table) first
Dirty Politics, yet somehow coal is clean.
Sure....
I burn wood for heat .. I would love to run my car on wood too.. that technology exists.
I have seen it done. It's called a wood gasifier. They built and successfully used one on the "reality" TV show "The Colony".
http://chickenjohn.com/mayor/innovation.html
I saw it on Gilligan's Island.
+1 Lol
wood can make steam, steam technology would work fine in cars, albeit a touch smoggy...
Drill Baby Drill!!
signed---Andy Granetelli
damn, I miss him
Personally, I liked my Government better when it was run by "big oil" because seeing my Government run by "big banks" has been much worse than anything I could have ever imagined.
I liked when it was Constitutional to rewrite corporate charters every 17 years.
I liked my government better before I took the Red Pill.
pods
I'm shocked! ......Shocked to hear that big whatthefuckever buys the politicians. Now can we get to work and put the rest of the coal miners out of business like El presidente promised.?
If Obama keeps one promise before his term is up I'll be surprised.
Can't wait to read this oganization's blockbuster report on the Dems who get the most cash from public employee unions. Oh, I forget. They're money is good money and not the least corrupting. Just check out those rising public school test resutls.
50 dollar a gallon gas. Force fat people to carry co-workers to work.
if you were born after 1964, you were subjected to a form of public education (and that includes private schools) that utterly destroyed your ability to think. If you had the ill-fortune to stay on that educational track to a bachelor degree level, you emerged a functional moron. If you obtained an advanced degree you are little more than a self-propelled vegetable. If you don't believe me, go talk to an Amish guy for five minutes.
Either the planet is in the grip of a diabolical conspiracy of incredible complexity and evil beauty, or the world is being run by complete idiots. Occam's razor suggests the latter. We live in Idiocracy.
But it's got electrolytes!
I will however take offense that we are being run by idiots. We are being run by sociopaths. Right over the edge of the cliff.
pods
I wouldn't pay Boehner 5 cents an hour to watch grass grow. But you have to consider the other party is hostile to coal, oil, and gas. So "big oil" has no choice but to deal with this fool.
Democracy is dead!
Has the author ever checked the list of Chuck Schumer's contributors? Surprise! It's the TBTF banks, and the amounts are very large. The fact that politicians take money from big business and big labor is not exactly a secret. And I agree with other commenters that the NWF and their ilk are hardly virgins - have you ever wondered how those 'activists' pay their rent? It turns out that NGOs pay very well.
If Big Oil and those who own it and the industries that are symbiotic with it ever think to simply fund both sides - we're doomed!
Title has a typo, should be:
"Guest Post: Big Oil Buying U.S. Politics"We has the bess gov'ment money can buy!!
I agree with those who have posted that everyone's bought - we have this system that requires tons of money for publicity, patronage, vote-buying and bribes to get elected, and then we're surprised that Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Environmental, Big Unions, Big any-and-everything own the politicians?
Reform the system - get Gary Johnson into the debates (for starters); let the people hear more than one or two points of view on what's going on, what's going wrong, and how to fix it (if it can be). People might have to listen to different opinions and MAKE UP THEIR OWN MINDS - some of them for the first time, I suspect.
all politicians are bought by someone...so i dont get the purpose of this article. tomorrows article will be news flash..politicians are crooks....!
The NWF was created by the Oil guys for propaganda purposes.
how can big oil fund politicians?
This is the land of free enterprise, who religiously believe in Von Mises dogma.
Keynes said "be commies" go buy government. So if big oil buys the politicians its ALL keynesian logic. Its his damn fault.
Lets face it, big oil has been Keynesian since before Keynes was born. And Romney is a true Keynesian, just like GWB.
In fact the USA has as religion Keynes....Keynes, Keynes, Keynes. Like Coca Cola and Macdonalds.
Next time you buy your big MAc remember its thanks to Keynes.
Keynes is to big capital what the Kabbah of Mecca is to the Islamic believer.
Now I know how to reason, like a true free enterpriser, who loves the oligarchy creed, the breed of Keynesianism!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RXL7_i59AqE/UGpvN_LbDqI/AAAAAAABzOE/6wNqo8-J2p...
http://newindependentchristianparty.com/
Join us.
Check out Pelosi's undies... they are not clean either... in fact, the stench is unbearable. PS: Alan Dershowitz is not a race OR a religion... he is a corrupt, pompus lying jew weakling asshole that is a stench in the nostrils of honest white men... he should be publically and brutally flogged... then deported to Iran.
Another shining example of how Big Oil operates:
http://www.green-grahamstown.org/2012/09/hypocrisy-exposed.html
Sunday, September 23, 2012Hypocrisy Exposed
You have to admire the chutzpah.
The fossil fuel industry has a track record of funding professional science deniers to undermine public confidence in climate science and global warming. Climate change, we were led to believe, was "junk science" (along with other science that predicts effects harmful to an industry, like the ozone hole, and harmful consequences of tobacco and asbestos). Now that a predicted effect, the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice, is happening on schedule, if not a little faster, fossil fuel companies are rushing to exploit the new opening of lower-cost exploitation of Arctic reserves. Clearly, if fossil fuel execs do not believe that the climate is changing to a warmer phase, they cannot plan on Arctic waters being increasingly accessible through summer. Such improved access is critical to economic viability. While a large part of the Arctic will still ice over in winter, easy access during summer radically reduces costs of supplying operations and shipping out gas and oil over water. Part of the rush to exploit these reserves can be explained by growing demand and depletion of other reserves. Even so, fossil fuel companies have to have increased confidence that costs will be lower than previously to find the prospect of tapping into Arctic reserves appealing. If what climate deniers claim is true, the current low in Arctic sea ice is a temporary blip, and we have summers ahead when ice will return to former levels. I can think of only two explanations for the industry's confidence in the profitability of exploiting the Arctic: there is some natural phenomenon someone has modelled accurately that predicts a continuing decline in Arctic sea ice, or the industry accepts the mainstream climate models that predict human-caused climate change will continue to radically reduce Arctic summer sea ice. If the former applies, no one has published such a model and, given the huge interest fossil fuel companies have in deflecting action on climate change, it would be bizarre if they had such a model and didn't publish. There is only one conclusion that fits the evidence: If you previously believed climate change was a hoax, this is a good time to stop conning yourself. The fossil fuel industry clearly does not believe their own propaganda, so why should you?As I figured nary one of the junkers wants any piece of this one....
Shell Oil is spending $4,500,000,000 on Arctic drilling over the next 6 years, do you think that they would do that if they thought for a moment that ice was coming back? BTW, $4.5 billion *dwarfs* the amount of money spent on researching alternatives....
Hell, even a caveman would get it.....
Here's some advice, wise guy...Open an economics textbook and learn - first - before opening your mouth.
You'll get more green arrow votes from the readers, should you pay attention to the non-Socialist (er, Keynesian) propaganda.
Egad, I just got poed....
Warm is better if you ask me.
Global warming Bitchezz!!!
The NWF's report, however, is non-partisan in its effort to showcase the energy sector's monetary influence over U.S. politics.
I'm still laughing at that one.
Whahh! Their guys are buying more guys than we can. No Fair. It hurts the 'Save the Planet' industry.
I guess eco-studies majors don't like flipping burgers with their MBA buddies.
Eco-studies is CLEARLY a major for intellectual pansies and those trying to make through college while high on pot.
That is a flippantly Neanderthalish comment.
Believe it or not, Ecology is actually a legitimate science.
PS: I am not an Ecologist.
Some body's gotta pay the bills. Oils well that ends well. Biatchez
Aint got nothing on Wall Street boyz
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/09/bill-moyers-alec-secret...
.
29 September 2012
Bill Moyers: ALEC, the Secretive Corporate-Legislative Body Writing US Laws
Situational Ethics....nothing new
What a great investment: "According to Oil Change International—a research, communication, and advocacy group focused on exposing the
true costs of fossil fuels—in the past 2 years the fossil fuel
industry gave Congress $25 million and in return got at least
$8 billion, meaning that for every dollar they invest they get at least $320 back in subsidies." (page 12 of the report)
But, but, but Solyndra is so much more evil!
Solyndra is equivalent to someone shouting squirrel while a weasel runs amok in the henhouse....
Oh yeah, and this one too
Republicans-claim-wind-credits-are-too-costly-after-voting-to-retain-billions-in-big-oil-subsidies
People buy energy. Companies want to be competitive and sell energy products at tge best possible price. So they contribute to politicians who promise to help them provide the best product at the best price. Im not sayimg its all hunky dory, but it doesnt sound like some nefariuos plan to me, or a reason to grumble, unless you want to fight the companies so they cant provide you energy at a reasonable cost.