11-03-06, 9:17 am
One of the biggest sources of greenhouse emissions is from use of fossil fuels such as petroleum products and by-products. People concerned about reducing greenhouse emissions for the sake of protecting the environment have long believed that alternative forms of energy need to replace the dominance of petroleum products in the US economy.
Support for alternative energy sources has gained wider acceptance among more and more Americans who have come to believe that the oil-based economy promotes volatility and keeps the US tied to security risks such as war, terrorism, and political instability. Many now argue that finding viable alternative energy sources has never been more crucial for national security and peace.
Despite the basic soundness of this claim, little progress has been made under Republican control of Congress.
It is commonly understood that the Republican Party and the right-wing's ideologically-motivated skepticism of global warming in the face of scientific evidence to the contrary has been a major road block to progress.
In fact, an Associated Press story published this week reports that at least two Bush-appointed agency heads in NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are being investigated for altering or manipulating scientific information about global warming.
But a recent report by the policy advocacy group Campaign for America's Future exposes the money behind the ideology and shows exactly how much it costs to block progress on fixing global warming and finding alternative energy sources in the Republican-controlled Congress.
According to the report titled 'Energy Independence: Record vs. Rhetoric,' between 2002 and 2006, Republican members of both houses of Congress who were present in the 109th session accepted over $6 million from the top 6 'big oil' corporate sources. Those companies included BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Koch Industries, and Valero Energy.
In exchange for these enormous cash contributions, Republicans blocked 'clean energy' legislation between 83 and 93% of the time, depending on in which house they sat. Such legislation, according to the report's analysis, included bills or amendments that would have provided subsidies to reduce dependence on oil, created severe penalties for gasoline price gouging, reduced subsidies on petroleum exploration and excavation, increased grants for alternative energy research, repealed tax breaks to big oil companies, or would have mandated that a minimum amount of electricity production be done using non-fossil fuel sources.
None of these proposals passed, and in many cases the Republican Party leadership simply blocked them from being brought to the floor for open debate.
Democrats altogether accepted less than $1 million from the same energy companies and tended to have a sharply higher 'clean energy' voting record.
'Big oil is paying off members of Congress to stonewall clean energy alternatives, and they are clearly getting their money’s worth,' said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future. 'This is vote buying, plain and simple.'
The report concludes that the Republican Party's dependence on a handful of oil companies for millions in campaign contributions 'makes it likely that they will favor oil and oppose alternatives should they retain control of Congress.'
Big oil's influence in the Republican-controlled Congress prompted the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), an independent environmental advocacy group, to name 7 Republicans, known as the 'oil-slick seven' to its notorious list, the 'Dirty Dozen.' The seven include: Sens. Conrad Burns (MT), Rick Santorum (PA), Jim Talent (MO) and Reps. Katherine Harris (FL), Heather Wilson (NM), Richard Pombo (CA), and Bob Ney (OH). These members were chosen both for their financial ties to big oil and their roles in blocking 'clean energy' alternatives.
Other members of Congress with the worst environmental records, according to LCV, include Republican Sen. George Allen (VA) and Reps. Deborah Pryce (OH), Dan Boren (OK), and J.D. Hayworth (AZ). Tom DeLay and Bob Ney were removed from the LCV 'Dirty Dozen' list of worst environmental offenders after corruption charges forced them into early retirement and/or service in a federal penitentiary. In each case, LCV has endorsed the Democratic challengers to the worst environmental offenders.
--Reach Joel Wendland at
