bringing people together

Finally there seems to be a political issue where big corporations are getting rich off the rest of the nation & everyone on the Hill & the Whitehouse is at least acting like they will respond. I say getting rich "off the rest of us" in this case, not to speak some socialist mumbo jumbo about the evils of capitalism, but because we own the land & oil that they are selling. If it is a national park / preserve / etc., then we each own a little bit of it. Same goes for the logging etc.

Here are exerpts - you'll have to regster for New York Times (it's free & no spam) if you want to read the whole article:

U.S. Has Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.

Based on the administration figures, the government will give up more than $7 billion in payments between now and 2011. The companies are expected to get the largess, known as royalty relief, even though the administration assumes that oil prices will remain above $50 a barrel throughout that period....

Short of imposing new taxes on the industry, there may be little Congress can do to reverse its earlier giveaways. The new projections come at a moment when President Bush and Republican leaders are on the defensive about record-high energy prices, soaring profits at major oil companies and big cuts in domestic spending.

Indeed, Mr. Bush and House Republicans are trying to kill a one-year, $5 billion windfall profits tax for oil companies that the Senate passed last fall.

Moreover, the projected largess could be just the start. Last week, Kerr-McGee Exploration and Development, a major industry player, began a brash but utterly serious court challenge that could, if it succeeds, cost the government another $28 billion in royalties over the next five years....

Administration officials say the issue is out of their hands, adding that they opposed provisions in last year's energy bill that added new royalty relief for deep drilling in shallow waters....

But the Bush administration did not put up a big fight. It strongly supported the overall energy bill, and merely noted its opposition to additional royalty relief in its official statement on the bill.

By contrast, the White House bluntly promised to veto the Senate's $60 billion tax cut bill because it contained a one-year tax of $5 billion on profits of major oil companies....

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The reporter on that article has continued to track the issue:


Lawmakers Plan an Effort to Reverse Royalty Relief
... By EDMUND L. ANDREWS ...
February 15, 2006 - By EDMUND L. ANDREWS (NYT) - Washington - News

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 — Democratic lawmakers and the White House both said on Tuesday that oil and gas companies should not receive lucrative incentives when energy prices are near record highs.

Congressman Starts Inquiry of Windfall to Oil Companies
... By EDMUND L. ANDREWS ...
February 16, 2006 - By EDMUND L. ANDREWS (NYT) - News

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 — A House Republican began a broad investigation on Wednesday of an Interior Department program that is expected to give billions of dollars in benefits over the next five years to companies that pump oil and gas on federal territory.

In a letter on Wednesday to Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, Representative Richard W. Pombo, the chairman of the House Resources Committee, demanded memos, correspondence and data on the program and on the negotiations over the law that created it in 1996.