Oil Hearing Stacked To Industry
This Thursday, at 2:15 in the afternoon, the Senate Finance Committee will convene in order to hold a hearing entitled: Oil and Gas Tax Provisions:
A Consideration of the President’s FY 2010 Budget Proposal. How will this hearing proceed? An indication of the slant of the hearing can be found in the list of witnesses that have been invited to testify.
Representatives from two politically-neutral organizations have been invited: Alan Krueger, Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department and Dr. Stephen P.A. Brown from Resources for the Future, a non-partisan research organization. Calvin H. Johnson of the University of Texas Law School, who has studied issues of tax codes, will also appear.
Then, there are the corporate witnesses: The American Petroleum Institute, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, and ClearView Energy Partners will send top executives to the hearing. ClearView Energy Partners was formed by two former members of the pro-oil Bush Administration and a veteran finance professional.
Who will balance out the industrial perspective in favor of continuing dependence on fossil fuels that will come from these three corporations? No one. There will be no representatives arguing in favor of a strong move away from a fossil fuel economy at the hearing. No one will represent consumers’ interests. It’s a setup, in which industry friendly Senator Max Baucus will hear just about what he wants to hear.
