an update on oil
In case you missed it, here’s what’s been going on with oil:
The oil industry continues to make record profits as prices at the pump skyrocket. Congress summons oil execs to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain their “exorbitant profits.” Oil execs claim it’s actually the restrictive policies of Congress that are causing the high gas prices, specifically to open up more federal lands “and allow us to responsibly produce more American oil and natural gas, which can supply us for decades to come.”
Bush falls in step with Big Oil and pressures Congress to pass “good legislation as soon as possible” to lift federal bans on exploring the Outer Contentinental Shelf and allow states to permit offshore oil drilling, even when his own energy department reports oil production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge “is not project to have a large impact on world oil prices.”
A top McCain economic advisor, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, admits offshore drilling “would have no immediate effect on supplies or prices.” But another McCain advisor, Nancy Pfotenhauer, continues to parrot the false talking-point that China is drilling near Cuba near the coast of Florida:
When you think about the fact that we’ve got China and Cuba drilling closer to the United States — the coastal United States — when American companies aren’t allowed to drill. It’s just insane.
Meanwhile, Western oil companies are about to be awarded no bid oil contracts in Iraq: Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, and BP — are in the final stages of “talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields.”
Does anyone believe the tired rhetoric that offshore drilling is needed to bring down prices at the pump?
