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Project Grudge Donating Member (228 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:35 AM
Original message
BP's corporate, personal ties to White House emerge
Edited on Sun May-30-10 11:38 AM by Project Grudge
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Three years ago, the national laboratory then headed by Steven Chu received the bulk of a $500 million grant from the British oil giant BP to develop alternative energy sources through a new Energy Biosciences Institute.

Chu received the grant from BP's chief scientist at the time, Steven E. Koonin, a fellow theoretical physicist whom Chu jocularly described as "my twin brother."
....

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/B456474AF8527A5186257732001776B4?OpenDocument
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Project Grudge Donating Member (228 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:39 AM
Response to Original message
1. And then there's this
'Among BP's lobbyists is Tony Podesta, who heads the Podesta Group, a lobbying powerhouse founded by Mr. Podesta and his brother, former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, who headed President Barack Obama's transition team. John Podesta now leads the Center for American Progress, the liberal think tank whose scholars have presented the White House with ideas like forcing BP to devote its first-quarter profits, or some $5 billion, to a fund for Gulf cleanup. It also has criticized potential BP-related conflicts of interest within the government.

Tony Podesta confirmed Podesta Group was working for BP on the Deepwater Horizon issue, but responded by email that "they have asked us not to talk to press." BP paid the Podesta Group $320,000 a year in 2008 and 2009, and $60,000 this year through March 31, said the Center for Responsive Politics. '


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704032704575268790823002422.html


-----------

This stinks. Corporate interests run this country.
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emulatorloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:44 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. "ideas like forcing BP to devote its first-quarter profits, or some $5 billion, to a fund for Gulf
Cleanup"

And why do you think this is a bad idea?
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madrchsod Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 12:52 PM
Response to Reply #4
17. they`ll run up the futures market and the world will be paying
over the long haul this is`t going to bother BP
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laughingliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-31-10 12:19 AM
Response to Reply #4
37. Maybe I'm missing something here but $5 billion sounds a little on the inadequate side. nt
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Usrename Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-31-10 12:02 PM
Response to Reply #4
42. because it's Exxon all over again
20 years from now, after BP has won in court an not paid a dime, then the answer might be more clear to you
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wordpix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:48 AM
Response to Reply #1
6. if BP doesn't want to talk to the press, how will they get their spin out there?
:shrug: :crazy:
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polichick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 12:00 PM
Response to Reply #1
10. Sure does stink - thanks for the info! nt
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flyarm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-31-10 12:03 AM
Response to Reply #1
34. and this ..
ahhh the strange bedfellows.....remember Dashle who pushed Obama during our primaries..and was one of his top advisors...........working with Whitman..the lady who lied about the air quality at Ground zero in NY?? Can i tickle your memory..she lied and people died and keep dying!! And that is just one example..

Spill, Baby, Spill
By Michael Isikoff, Ian Yarett and Matthew Philips | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated May 10, 2010

BP has been trying hard to burnish its public image in recent years after being hit with a pair of environmental disasters, including a fatal refinery explosion in Texas and a pipeline leak in Alaska. One major step was to announce, in 2007, that it had hired a high-powered advisory board that included former EPA director Christine Todd Whitman, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and Leon Panetta, who were each paid $120,000 a year. (Panetta left when he became President Obama's CIA director.) Two years ago the oil giant's chief executive, Robert Malone, flew board members out to the Gulf of Mexico on a helicopter to demonstrate the safeguards surrounding BP's advanced drilling technology. "We got a sense they were really committed to ensuring they got it right," Whitman told NEWSWEEK.

Now BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, finds itself blamed for what could prove to be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. And only weeks after Obama announced an ambitious plan to open up more U.S. offshore waters to oil drilling, shunting aside environmental concerns from his own Democratic Party, his administration is facing a comeuppance from hell. "There was a lot of wishful thinking, I guess," says Villy Kourafalou, a scientist at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The new technologies were said to be so wonderful that we'd never have an oil spill again." Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who had sought to block the expanded drilling, says the oil and gas industry was pushing this idea hard. "They said, 'We'll never have a repeat of Santa Barbara,'?" referring to the 1969 rig explosion off the California coast. Both the Bush and Obama administrations "were buying the line that the technology was fine," Pallone adds.

BP pressed hard to make that point in D.C. Its PR efforts included payments of $16 million last year to a battery of Washington lobbyists, among them the firm of Tony Podesta, the brother of former Obama transition chief John Podesta. Last fall, after the U.S. Interior Department proposed tighter federal regulation of oil companies' environmental programs, David Rainey, BP's vice president for Gulf of Mexico exploration, told Congress that the proposal was unnecessary. "I think we need to remember," he said, that offshore drilling "has been going on for the last 50 years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the environment."


Read the full article at:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/237298


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf
Source: McClatchy

Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf

By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama's vow that his administration would launch a "relentless response effort" to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling.


The exemptions, known as "categorical exclusions," were granted by the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, or MMS, and included waiving detailed environmental studies for a British Petroleum exploration plan to be conducted at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. exploration plan at more 9,000 feet.

"Is there a moratorium on offshore drilling or not?" asked Peter Galvin, the conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration's continued approval of the exemptions. "Possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history has occurred, and nothing appears to have changed."

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/07/93761/despite-spi ...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

and never forget this..we Floridans won't!!!


YouTube - Barack Obama on Offshore Oil Drilling ( to Florida voters while asking for their votes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8fkbEuCQss&NR=1

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and this...........

Obama: “Oil Rigs Today Generally Don’t Cause Spills” | FDL News Desk

see the Video at link..

What a difference 18 days makes. Here was Barack Obama, on April 2, before the BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, claiming that oil rigs are safe to justify his position on offshore drilling:

I don’t agree with the notion that we shouldn’t do anything. It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.


Not only does this quote look ridiculous in hindsight, it wasn’t true at the time, as Brad Johnson points out:

Obama’s claim that oil rigs did not cause any spills during Hurricane Katrina is simply false, as the Wonk Room reported in June, 2008, when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and other conservatives made the same false claim:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.”


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

psssss...all Obama would have had to do was read the Florida legislative reports to know there were major spills after Katrina and Rita..if i could read the reports, so could have Obama and his team of doofs and greedy bastards who got their pockets greased by BP and the oil money boys!
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Coyote_Bandit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:42 AM
Response to Original message
2. Change?
Sounds like the same cozy corporate relationships that existed before.

Certainy not the change I voted for.
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Gowi Donating Member (8 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 12:03 PM
Response to Reply #2
11. That is not fair, change takes time.
Our president is working hard to undo the culture of corruption left him by the previous administration of criminals. Look at the strides he has made in so many areas, transparency not the least!

Judge him at the end of his second term!
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Coyote_Bandit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 01:14 PM
Response to Reply #11
19. Second term?
That's a bit premature isn't it? Like it or not this President - like others - will be judged before securing a second term. And you can color me unimpressed. This is the administration of lost opportunities.
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southern_belle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 01:19 PM
Response to Reply #11
21. Thank you - I agree! n/t
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YellowDawgDemocrat Donating Member (181 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 02:13 PM
Response to Reply #11
25. Damn straight
I couldn't agree more. There's no way to judge Obama this early into his Presidency given the complete and utter disaster that preceded him. It's as though time bombs were left to explode after the idiots departure.
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Rubber Ducky Donating Member (10 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 02:37 PM
Response to Reply #11
29. I know you're right, Gowi,
but sometimes I have to fight the urge to get slightly annoyed with our President. I just tell myself that at the end of his second term we'll look back and see that he did everything exactly right! :)
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Barackbaby Donating Member (36 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 09:52 PM
Response to Reply #29
33. Take your frustrations out on Bush
that's what I do. I have a dart board with a picture of him on my garage wall, and when I get a little frustrated, or mildly annoyed, I blame Bush and aim for his forehead.

Welcome to DU.
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WhiteTara Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 08:42 PM
Response to Reply #11
31. welcome to DU
:hi:
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flyarm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-31-10 12:11 AM
Response to Reply #11
36. go read my post #35..transparency my ass! eom
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 12:07 PM
Response to Reply #2
14. So hey! Let's all vote for the GOP next time, then!
Or "send a message!" Vote for some pipsqueak party that's only gonna guarantee that the GOP will win.

'Cause we can be secure in the knowledge that the GOP certainly won't have ANY cozy corporate relationships at all...

They're pure as driven snow on this one, that's fer sure...

Yeah, it burns me up, too, but I will be going with the lesser of two evils. I hate it. I HATE IT. We on the left really don't have any choice. 'Cause what else is there? Staying home and "showing 'em!"? It's like comparing puking your guts out because you drank too much, with puking your guts out because the ebola virus in you is starting to liquify all your insides and send 'em out through your mouth. Given that choice, I'll guess I'll take the hangover.

:banghead:
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Coyote_Bandit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 01:16 PM
Response to Reply #14
20. I refuse to vote for the lesser of two evils
Doing so makes me complicit. Doing so enables our political parties to happily present us with inferior and substandard candidates.

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Individualist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 02:16 PM
Response to Reply #14
26. That meme is as stale as it is asinine.
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Bluebear Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 09:37 PM
Response to Reply #26
32. ++
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William Z. Foster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 02:56 PM
Response to Reply #14
30. not about voting
This does not have anything to do with voting. The partisan electoral politics is an effect, not a cause.

Left wing criticism does not help the Republicans. Not in the short run, and not in the long run.

Decades of first hand experience canvassing and talking to thousands of people has taught me that if you are willing to criticize the Democrats strongly from the political left, that this makes people much less likely to vote Republican, not more likely.

The notion that left wing criticism causes people to vote Republican is absurd on its face. So is the notion that democracy means voting in one crowd, and then sitting on our hands and silently hoping for the best.

Did organized Labor fall silent and not criticize the administration, and just hope for the best when FDR was elected?

Did the Abolitionists pack up their tents and go home when Whigs, and then later Republicans were elected?

Did the Civil Rights movement suspend activities while JFK and LBJ were in office?
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pecwae Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-31-10 06:12 AM
Response to Reply #30
39. Why do your posts make so much sense?
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Melinda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:43 AM
Response to Original message
3. Ah yes, corporate interests and the US....
Why, the relationship between the feds and corporations is positively incestous. Meh. :banghead:
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wordpix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:52 AM
Response to Reply #3
8. really, the corporations run the country & install their people in gov. thru campaign donations
Edited on Sun May-30-10 12:02 PM by wordpix
thousand$ here, thousand$ there and million$ to incumbents over several year$ ensure the continued power of corporations. THEY install the governors, congressmen and senators, not US. Voting is just a sideshow, let's face it :puke:
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nashville_brook Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:45 AM
Response to Original message
5. greenwashing has two goals -- one is a straight PR win...the other is influence.
BP's "beyond petroleum" campaign was wildly successful on both counts.
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polichick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 12:06 PM
Response to Reply #5
13. Yep - I've read that bp only spends a pittance on green energy...
...nothing that would actually make a difference - and it isn't meant to.
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nashville_brook Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 12:53 PM
Response to Reply #13
18. my company embarked on a BIG green initiative, and i volunteered
to participate at the branch level. as far as i can see, it's clearly about influence, with PR being a long second (i do the PR for our branch). the real action is at the highest levels of the organization where one CEO sez to the other, our green influence is unmatched in the industry and will open doors for you.
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scentopine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:51 AM
Response to Original message
7. No conflict of interests here, BP has everything under control, move along -nt
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polichick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 11:58 AM
Response to Original message
9. Wow - so much for hiring the perfect geek. k&r
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wordpix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 12:05 PM
Response to Original message
12. this explains Chu's very calm, calculated interview with Rachel
I found the interview disturbing---as if it didn't bother him that much that the entire Gulf Coast is awash in oil and toxic dispersant.
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polichick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 12:07 PM
Response to Reply #12
15. He was creepy in that interview - especially when he glibbly announced that...
...he "only knows what he reads in the paper" about the permits still being issued.
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 12:11 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. And there it is. He protested too much and Rachel caught it, didn't she?
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 01:20 PM
Response to Original message
22. Deleted message
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
meow mix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 01:21 PM
Response to Original message
23. relax, bp has this nt
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 01:24 PM
Response to Original message
24. Deleted message
Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
Urban Prairie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 02:18 PM
Response to Original message
27. Megadeth's "Peace Sells....Oil Spill Remix"
Edited on Sun May-30-10 02:19 PM by Urban Prairie
What do you mean, "We don't believe in our country"?
We post here everyday!!
What do you mean, "We don't support our troops"?
We paid taxes when we had to!!
What do you mean, "We can't get to work on time"?
We got no jobs to do!!
And, what do you mean, "We don't pay our bills"??
Why do you think we're becoming homeless and broke??
Huh?!?

If there's a new way,
We'll be the first in line.
But it better work this time!!

What do you mean, "We'll hurt their feelings"?
We didn't know that they HAD any feelings!!
What do you mean, "They ain't kind"??
We're just not "their" kind!!
What do you mean, "They couldn't buy off Congress
and the President
Of the United States of America"??
Tell me something...is it still "We The People"....anymore?!?

If there's a new way
We'll be the first in line
But it better work this time!!

Can you put a price on life???

Crude,
Crude sells...
BP,
BP sells...
Crude sells... but whose buying??
BP sells... but no ones buying!!
Crude sells... but whose buying??
BP sells... but no ones buying!!


Nope...spin sells!!!
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johnaries Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun May-30-10 02:30 PM
Response to Original message
28. You have a problem with developing alternative energy sources?
Despite the source of these funds, Chu had been a outspoken leading proponent of alternative energy for years. He's not some corporate shill whose opinions change based on funding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Chu
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HughMoran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-31-10 12:10 AM
Response to Reply #28
35. Pro alternative energy physicist geek is a corporate shill?
Ever notice that there is no such thing as a person who can't be tarred when the time is right?
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tammywammy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-31-10 12:23 AM
Response to Original message
38. "There is no evidence that Chu or Koonin have represented BP's viewpoints in...
internal deliberations or sought to influence administration policy in a way that would benefit BP."

He's also a big proponent of alternate energy sources.
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stillwaiting Donating Member (591 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-31-10 07:08 AM
Response to Original message
40. Our country will never change until we take legalized bribery out of the system.
TPTB will own just about every elected official eventually (even if they don't initially when a new upstart gets elected).

TPTB will make sure that elected officials put on a pretty show that GUARANTEES that we stay divided as a society though.

You can be damn sure of that.

"Better Democrats" won't do a thing. That is the red herring. A movement that solely focuses on changing the system is our only hope.

This movement should also focus efforts on starving the beast (multinational companies) of money in any way possible.

Public financing of campaigns, term limits, paper ballots, and a substantially reduced campaign season just might begin to get more results for the people.

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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-31-10 07:17 AM
Response to Original message
41. Palins husband works for BP but no one ever mentions that
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