Texas Congressman Funnels Government Money To Oil Interests
The prime issues at stake for the USA ought to be clear:
1. Although bankers are doing better for themselves now, and corporations are temporarily flush with stimulus money, the rest of the economy, in which most Americans live, is still in the gutter.
2. Government spending is at an all time high.
3. Global warming is quite real, and climate change is causing severe economic damage that will only get worse in the years to come, thanks to human causes such as the burning of fossil fuels.
4. The volatility of fossil fuel energy prices has been playing havoc with the American economy for the last several years.
These fundamental points all lead to the same conclusion: The United States needs to move away from dependence on fossil fuels, and the government needs to stop subsidizing fossil fuel companies and research.
Texas Republican Joe Barton doesn’t see things that way. Congressman Barton represents a district in Texas where the big oil companies created for the previous century’s energy needs still hold sway. That’s why, this year, at the very same time he was complaining about wasteful government spending, Barton managed to create an earmark of a million dollars of government spending to support fossil fuel research and development that aims to convince Americans that the dirtiest, most inefficient sources of fossil fuel energy, such as oil shale, oil sands, coal, and industrial sludges, are somehow sources of “clean” energy.
The earmark goes so far as to refer to industrial sludges as a “natural resource”. Joe Barton ought to be ashamed of himself.
