Boehner's insider trading on Keystone Pipeline (from 01/2012)

[ProfessionalLeftist]

Maybe has been posted here previously, but is a good thing to keep in mind as the battle over this unnecessary, environmentally destructive piece of shit continues.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner would personally benefit more than almost anyone if the Keystone Pipeline deal gets passed. Boehner has invested up to $365,000 of his own money in seven companies that would benefit from a deal getting passed, making many wonder about a conflict of interest.

According to the Washington Post, "The firms include six oil companies—BP, Canadian Natural Resources, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Devon Energy and Exxon—along with Emerson Electric, which has a contract to provide the digital automation for the first phase of a $9.4 billion Horizon Oil Sands Project in Canada."

Boehner said on Sunday that he wants to attach the Keystone Pipeline provision to Obama's infrastructure bill in February.

Ironically, Democrats in the Senate are going to force a vote this week on a bill that would prosecute insider trading such as this. It's called the STOCK Act. The law would prosecute members of Congress that engage in insider trading.

LINK:

http://www.westernprogressive.com/2012/01/boehners-insider-trading-on-keystone-pipeline.html

. . .

... in December 2010, according to Boehner’s financial disclosure forms, he invested $10,000 to $50,000 each in seven firms that had a stake in Canada’s oil sands, the region that produces the oil the pipeline would transport. The firms include six oil companies — BP, Canadian Natural Resources, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Devon Energy and Exxon — along with Emerson Electric, which has a contract to provide the digital automation for the first phase of a $9.4 billion Horizon Oil Sands Project in Canada.

Bill McKibben, a climate activist and co-founder of the group 350.org, wrote in an e-mail that Boehner has received more than $1 million from fossil-fuel companies, “and now we find out that he’s got extensive personal investments in companies dependent on tarsands oil.”

“He was willing to shut down the government in part to prevent enough time for serious environmental review,” McKibben added. “In any other facet of our public life .?.?. this whole list taken together would be seen for the gross conflict of interest that it is.”

LINK:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/as-deadline-nears-friends-and-foes-of-keystone-xl-pipeline-step-up-campaigns/2012/01/13/gIQAyd7IzP_story_1.html