| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
18 Aug 2006 08:34:03 AM |
| Object: |
Follow the money |
The Vermont Guardian, 8/18/06:
http://www.vermontguardian.com/commentary/082006/Aug18Editorials.shtml
Follow the money
To make sense of the most recent outbreak of violence in the Middle
East, look not to the front pages of the nation’s newspapers, but to
the business pages.
ExxonMobil Corp. reported Aug. 10 that its second-quarter profits
increased 36 percent to $10.36 billion, the second-largest quarterly
profit ever for a publicly traded, U.S. company.
Royal Dutch Shell reported earnings of $7.32 billion, up 40 percent
from a year ago.
In fact, four of the nation’s five largest oil companies, which own
more than 40 percent of U.S. refining capacity -- including BP, which
last week shut down the biggest oil field in Alaska after finding
severe pipe corrosion due to lack of maintenance -- netted more than
$30 billion in profits during the second quarter amid record crude oil
prices.
Not coincidentally, The New York Times business section reported last
week that "Big Oil," which has been pressing Congress for years to
expand rights to drill for domestic oil and gas off shore, is finally
getting its wish.
On Aug. 2, the Senate voted to open for bidding 8.3 million acres of
federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, thought to hold 5.8 trillion
cubic feet of natural gas and 1.3 billion barrels of crude.
Both houses of Congress have passed legislation allowing new
exploration, and while the bills differ, both are expected to
liberalize offshore drilling rules, the Times reported.
So why the push now, when these companies have lobbied for such
liberalization for years?
The Middle East, of course.
"With tension in the Middle East and gasoline prices at home rising,
the industry’s fortunes on Capitol Hill may be changing," declared the
Times’ report.
Actually, the industry’s fortunes have never been far from the hearts
and minds of Washington policymakers.
We know that Vice Pres. ***** Cheney crafted this administration’s
first energy policy with oil industrialists in closed-door meetings.
With a seriously destabilized Middle East threatening to unravel into
a region-wide conflagration, and prices at the pump squeezing our
household budgets, oil companies have the groundwork in place and all
the excuse they need to press for expanded drilling.
In 2005, the top 10 oil companies spent $33 million lobbying Congress
and the Bush administration.
A year ago, despite record prices over the $50 a barrel mark, the
president signed an energy bill that contained $2.6 billion in new tax
breaks for oil and gas drillers.
And this year, Washington wanted a new war in the Middle East because
Big Oil smelled even more profit-making opportunity.
But Congress and the White House are doing the yeoman’s work for Big
Oil with blood on their hands.
Thirty-four days of fighting between Israel and Lebanon -- fighting
the U.K. Guardian reported was planned by Washington far in advance of
Hamas’ or Hezbollah’s alleged provocation -- has left 790 people dead
in Lebanon, 114 soldiers and 39 civilians in Israel, and nearly 200
Palestinians in Gaza, an ongoing conflict that has fallen right off
western front pages.
The subtext of these wars is on the business pages.
We should just call the profits we see there what they are:
blood money.
________________________________________________________
Connect the dots. It shouldn't be too difficult.
Harry
.
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