As the price of gas moves toward $4 a gallon and oil company profits soar, US House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declared that Big Oil should pay its fair share of taxes and the industry’s lucrative federal subsidiaries should be reviewed. That was Monday of this week. By Thursday, he was in retreat and echoing [...]
A year after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, Congress has not passed any major law to prevent another disaster. Why? “The opposition to new legislation that requires stricter oversight largely stems from the anti-regulatory zeal of conservative lawmakers and from the influence of the oil industry, say congressional staffers from both [...]
Duke Energy is feeling heat from both sides of the political spectrum. The company wants to become the largest electric utility in the US, through a merger with Progress Energy, but conservatives want Duke CEO Jim Rogers fired. They don't like his support for regulating carbon emissions, his executive team's multiple ethical violations, and (probably [...]
A significant number of legislators in Raleigh seem determined to help big political donors gut regulations and overturn state laws that protect consumers, public health and the environment. The poor state of accessible campaign finance data makes it difficult to track the pay-to-play culture, but Democracy North Carolina has highlighted the undue influence in several [...]
Democracy North Carolina weighs in on the controversial proposal to build special jetties or “terminal groins” near coastal inlets: Our media release today documents the millions of campaign dollars given by vacation homeowners advocating for the groins, and we caution legislators, especially those who say they’re against pay-to-play politics, please evaluate this legislation based on [...]
The Public Campaign Action Fund has a new report out today that details the grip the energy industry has on members of the US House Committee on Energy & Commerce. The report arrives as the Energy & Power Subcommittee convenes to debate a Republican effort to weaken the Clean Air Act. It not only profiles the direct [...]
Duke Energy and Progress Energy are combining forces into one giant company, the largest electric utility in the nation. But all their cash flow and technological wizardry is still not enough to convince Wall Street to endorse building multiple nuclear power plants as the smartest energy future for America. Wall Street wants a no-risk guarantee, [...]
Some updates: The company trying to build a giant cement factory near Wilmington (LINK, Feb. 13, 2010) has changed its legal and lobbying team, abandoning the McGuireWoods firm that once boasted having former Gov. Mike Easley and several of his associates on its payroll. Easley and Ruffin Poole have left McGuireWoods, and some key legislative [...]
It takes a billionaire, maybe two or three, to fight the obvious notion that burning huge quantities of oil in vehicles, homes and factories is fueling climate change. The secretive, mega-billionaire Koch brothers are ready for the challenge. As mentioned earlier (August 24 LINK), David and Charles Koch are beginning to get more attention as [...]
Mother Jones magazine gives this factoid from a new series by the Center for Responsive Politics: Environmental organizations spent a record $22 million lobbying Congress and federal agencies last year, but for every dollar the groups spent, the oil and gas industry spent eight dollars. Exxon alone spent more on lobbying than all the environmental [...]