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oil 
Wed May 27, 2009 at 10:32 AM CDT
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*First, for an authoritative piece on the context of this issue, see sharonTX here*
This morning on NPR there was a story on fracking (hydraulic fracturing, in which water and chemicals are pumped into the ground at extremely high pressures to force natural gas to the surface), interviewing one Texan, Steve Harris, who believes the practice contaminated his drinking water. Fracking is completely exempted from federal regulation due to a loophole inserted in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Steve Harris believes that pressure also ruined his well. He lives on 14 acres south of Dallas. Shortly after a driller fracked a nearby well, he and his neighbors noticed a change in water pressure.
"When you'd flush the toilet - in the back where the bowl is - water would shoot out the top of the bowl," says Harris.
When he took a shower, there was a foul odor, and the water left rashes on his grandson's skin. His horses stopped drinking from their trough, and there was an oily film on top of the water.
More after the flip...
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Wed Jun 18, 2008 at 07:17 AM CDT
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According to CREW, John McCain is the single biggest recipient of money from big oil. See: http://opensecrets.org/pres08/...
Given that McCain is now trying to wriggle out of public financing so he can take even more money from big donors and lobbyists, can we assume that his flip-flop on offshore drilling off the Gulf Coast has anything to do with his donor base? But I guess this is what 3/4 of a million dollars collected in $2300 chunks and bundled by high-powered lobbyists will get you.
So I ask, are we that cheap? If that's all that it takes to overturn a ban implemented by the first President Bush almost 20 years ago, then that is money well spent by industry.
Coming soon: why offshore drilling is an economic loser, an ecological disaster waiting to happen, and why it will continue our addiction to foreign oil and greenhouse gases, not ease us off them.
"this post does not reflect the views of anyone or any other organization other than Citizen Andy, and even then not all the time."
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Thu Dec 13, 2007 at 02:57 PM CST
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( - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
During the 2006 election cycle, Kay Bailey Hutchinson was the top recipient of contributions from the oil & gas industry. For the upcoming 2008 election, our senator John Cornyn is the top recipient of money from big oil in the senate.
So when the a recent energy bill came before the senate which called for a rollback of tax breaks for oil companies, both Cornyn and Hutchinson (unsurprisingly) voted against the bill:
President Bush had threatened to veto any energy bill that raised taxes. The House passed a bill with higher taxes on oil companies last week.
Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison both voted against the motion to move the bill forward. Ms. Hutchison had negotiated to strip out the higher taxes on oil and gas producers. (source)
There you have it- Cornyn and Hutchinson siding with both the White House and their campaign contributors.
Apparently, despite the fact that there was across the aisle support for the bill ("There is no reason why we shouldn't pass the energy bill today" Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY) and the other provisions that would "boost the nation's use of renewable energy, set new efficiency standards for appliances and - most dramatically - set aggressive new fuel mileage requirements for cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles", some Senate Republicans (not pointing any fingers) looked past that because of money received from certain exploitive corporations.
Because of these Republicans, the tax hike on big oil is going to be removed from the bill and it will be reintroduced. At least we still have some energy reforms to look forward to. (source)
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Mon Jun 25, 2007 at 05:15 PM CDT
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The awareness phase of the campaign to stop global warming has reached a crescendo, which may also be a plateau. With the exception of front groups sponsored by oil companies, it is becoming more and more accepted that we, in fact, are the cause of global warming.
The action phase, however, trails the awareness phase significantly and most troubling of all is the growing belief that someone else is going to be the somebody to actually do something about global warming. Even worse, and most naively of all, that our federal government is going to solve the problem.
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Wed Jun 28, 2006 at 08:20 AM CDT
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I thought that was the only way we'd ever get the local Austin paper to cover my Congressional race - if we could prove that my opponent, the incumbent Republican Congressman, John Carter was an alien. Nope, turns out he's only been marooned on Mars - and that was exposed by a Houston paper first.
So does that make him an illegal alien? ah, sweet irony... But I digress.
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Tue May 09, 2006 at 04:03 PM CDT
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Presidential speechifying (thank you K-T for including this graphic in yesterday's Round-Up).
Nixon rallied against Big Oil while Ford declared high prices on foreign fuel stood between Americans and their destiny. Jimmy Carter dutifully insisted "the energy industry should not reap large unearned profits," while George H.W. Bush preached of a future based on diverse energy sources. Could he have predicted his son's confidence in switchgrass in 2006?
Talk, talk isn't enough and our politicians know it. Today it's all about the photo op. Dennis Hastert was on top of his game before lunging for his SUV and the security only it can provide . Let's also give Congress credit for the new ideas they've brought to the table. There was the $100 rebate decried as insulting until a wild-eyed Dem proposed a $500 rebate (that's insult x 5). If the public insists on more than words and pictures (this time), our representatives are prepared to buy votes! When is the last time Washington was that honest with us?
In the days after September 11th, our patriotic duty required shopping. Today it demands we step on the gas. If Congress can keep us driving, perhaps we won't ask questions about our foreign policy and how it relates to this current crisis at the pump.
Our elected representatives are serious....seriously concerned their campaigns for re-election can't run on empty. What do Kay Bailey Hutcihson, Tom DeLay and Rick Santorum have in common? Besides being three people I hope I don't meet in heaven, they're at the top of a list that might explain our being stuck in nuetral for over 30 years:
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