A provision forcing President Obama to make a decision about unusual environmental waivers for a proposed oil pipeline was passed in the U.S. Senate today, in exchange for only two months’ extension of unemployed benefits and a delay on a decision about payroll tax cuts. In January, the same drama will begin again, and Republicans, having learned that congressional Democrats will quickly bow to pressure, will be pushing for more drastic concessions.

Not one Republican voted in favor of Kathy Hochul’s spending cuts to bring accountability to the Bureau of Land Management. As much as the House Republicans talk about bringing spending under control, they chose to block action on Hochul’s spending reduction amendment.

Rall Hall excluded the opening remarks made by ranking minority member Eddie Bernice Johnson from appearance on the web page for the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s hearing on fracking today.

Fossil fuels money already flows thick for Sandy Adams, and her first term in office isn’t yet even four months old. It would be downright unprofitable for Representative Adams to take a stand against the economic interests of the dirty energy industry.

Many of these politicians were howling just a couple of weeks ago about out of control government spending. Now, they’re supporting a plan to throw out billions of dollars to benefit big natural gas companies.

This study may have a strong impact itself – on the debate over whether to allow fracking, which creates significant risks of pollution of groundwater, to be conducted over large areas of the United States that have been heretofore untouched. Natural gas has been promoted as a “clean burning” energy source, when compared to coal and petroleum, but the release of dangerous gases in the mining process has not been taken into account in such analyses.

Who supports the effort to bring hydrofracturing back under the control of the American people? The list of cosponsors has no Republicans.

H.R. 556 would require oil companies currently operating along California’s coast to clean up their operations and work to ensure reasonable protection of California’s coastal ecosystems. Is that why John Rockefeller opposes the legislation?

Sander Levin asked for money from energy industry political action committees – between $1,000 and $5,000 per PAC, according to the invitation sent out on behalf of Levin’s re-election campaign. In return for this money, the Energy Industry got pigs in a blanket.

Mike Arcuri sounds like a PR hack working for a gas drilling company, promising protection while actually defending plans to go right ahead with the environmentally risky plans that were already in place. He won’t take a stand