Waxman: $1.5 Billion Giveaway Secretly Slipped into Energy Bill

[rumpel]

In a letter to Speaker Hastert, Rep. Waxman writes that after the energy legislation was closed to further amendment in the recently concluded conference, a $1.5 billion provision benefiting oil and gas companies, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas, was mysteriously inserted in the text.

available at TO
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072705T.shtml

I had just written him, how upset I am. This now really get's me boiling!

[burythehatchet]

1. M***** F****** B*******

:mad:

[Old and In the Way]

2. Sounds like a federal crime has been committed.

Isn't this tampering with the legislative process? Amazing that these slimeball Republicans pull this shit and get away with it.

[Wetzelbill]

13. they do it all the time, once they go into committee they get free

rein to do some underhanded stuff. It's how things like the protection of drug companies against Thimerosal lawsuits get into bills like the Homeland Security bill. Once they get into committee it becomes whore central.

[Up2Late]

3. This is nothing new, they have been doing Sh*t like this for years...

...every time they go into conference committee (House/Senate) usually without more than one or two Democrats, they toss out all the "protect the American People" stuff, that the Senate democrats struggled to put in the the Senate version, and it usually comes out with a few billion dollars worth of pork, then gets rammed through the final votes.:banghead: :mad:

[rumpel]

4. so much for preaching democracy

[Firenze777]

5. DeLay's (latest) secret pork

The subtitle appears to steer the administration of 75% of the $1.5 billion fund to a private consortium located in the district of Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Ordinarily, a large fund like this would be administered directly by the government. The subtitle, however, directs the Department to "contract with a corporation that is constructed as a consortium." The leading contender for this contract appears to be the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) consortium, housed in the Texas Energy Center in Sugar Land, Texas. Halliburton is a member of RPSEA and sits on the board, as does Marathon Oil Company. The subtitle provides that the consortium can keep up to 10% of the funds - in this case, over $100 million - in administrative expenses.

The subtitle further provides that members of the consortium, such as Halliburton and Marathon Oil, can receive awards from the over $1 billion fund administered by the consortium.

[milkyway]

6. Unfuckingbelievable. Here's a link to the pdf of Waxman's letter at

Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/27/delay-dirty-tricks/

The key line from Waxman:

"While oil and gas companies could be required to contribute to the costs of their projects, the subtitle expressly provides that the Department has discretion to reduce or eliminate any such contribution."

In other words, the taxpayers might pay the entire cost for these projects, but guess who will get to keep all the profits.

Any Dem who votes for this so-called energy bill should be thrown out of the party and indicted as co-conspirators.

[Hissyspit]

7. All kinds of shit has been slipped into the Energy Bill

Overturning the 1935 power company regulation, for instance.

[Up2Late]

15. YES and that one is truly HUGE! A total bend over, here it comes...

...for the "American Energy Consumer."

Hey, I just coined that one, I think. Like it?

[Hissyspit]

16. Disaster in the making. Americans, as usual, seem completely oblivious.

Repulicans deregulate - we get the largest financial crisis in U.S. history, the S&L scam.

So let's do it again!

[Supersedeas]

21. and the American media seems to be completely oblivious

[Miss Chybil]

8. I propose a bill that says nothing may be attached to any bill and that

also requires all members of Congress to READ the bills before they vote on them. I'll call it the "Bullshit Reduction Bill."

[rumpel]

14. That's a good one. I will support it.

[Up2Late]

17. That's what would have happened if the Repukes used...

..."The New-Killer" option.

One of the reasons I wasn't so upset about the prospect.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Sounds like a whole lotta

[CantGetFooledAgain]

10. They are out-and-out thieves.

Every week there is another appalling story like this.

Clearly, we are powerless. At least at the present time. Not one in ten thousand Americans, of either party, would knowingly approve of this.

So why does our system allow it to happen? Because the system is broken.

[Auntie Bush]

11. That settles it! I'm not paying taxes anymore!

My money is just going to the likes of Halliburton, Dick Cheney, Tom Delay, the Republican party and the defense industry. And I won't feel guilty for cheating them out of every penny I can. Damn them!

[alfredo]

12. Outrageous

Pass it on to all on your mailing list.

[Karenina]

18. Kick!

:kick:

[converted_democrat]

19. This is total BS...........n/t

[converted_democrat]

20. ......