Oil Giants Oppose Senate Energy Bill

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/49_105/news/5073-1.html (subscription required)

As President Bush and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) spar over gas prices on the campaign trail, the oil industry is making a move on Capitol Hill that could scuttle any chance that Congress approves energy legislation before this fall’s election.

In the past few weeks, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Citgo, Sunoco and other oil and gas companies have quietly told Congressional Republicans that they will not support the low-octane energy bill that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) hopes to bring to the floor this spring.

“We are not pushing this abbreviated bill,” said Don Duncan, the chief lobbyist for ConocoPhillips, referring to a compromise bill crafted by Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) after a more comprehensive bill stalled in the Senate last year.

“We’ve waited too darn long for an energy policy bill to come about, and if you pass one now that is not comprehensive you haven’t really addressed most of the issues that are out there,” Duncan said.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Just a casual confirmation that corporations run the USA

Never mind that the majority party came up with this bill, and it's a 'compromise', which implies the minority might support it too; if the oil companies don't like it, that scuttles its chances. Are Republican senators (and any Democrats?) bought so easily that they ignore their own leader?