Oil And Gas
In Abundance
In Washington
By Eli Clifton
30 July , 2004
Inter Press Service
Much
scrutiny of the ongoing U.S. presidential race has focused on the personal
fortunes amassed by President George W Bush and his challenger Senator
John Kerry. But millions of dollars from other sources are also at play
behind the scenes, including from major actors in the U.S. oil and gas
industry.
Leading the way
is privately-held Koch Industries, which has contributed more than half
a million dollars in the 2004 election cycle, and just under 5..5 million
dollars to election campaigns since 1989, 90 percent of that money going
to members of Bush's Republican Party, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics, a research group here that tracks campaign contributions.
"Koch has enjoyed significant entrees into politics, specifically
Republican administrations, over the years," said the Center's
research director, Sheila Krumholz, in an interview with IPS.
According to a recent
report by another Washington-based group, the Center for Public Integrity,
the oil and gas industry has spent more than 440 million dollars since
1998 on campaign contributions and lobbying.
ExxonMobil was the
industry's lobbying leader, spending 55 million dollars in Washington
since 1998, adds the report, 'The Politics of Oil'.
Other big spenders
included ChevronTexaco (32 million dollars), Marathon Oil (29 million),
British oil giant BP (28 million), British/Dutch behemoth Royal Dutch/Shell
Group (27 million), the American Petroleum Institute (20 million) and
Occidental Petroleum (12 million), according to the report by the Center,
which conducts investigative research on public policy issues.
Some of the more
sensational names mentioned in the document are scandal-plagued Enron
Corp, which spent 16 million dollars on campaigns and lobbying, and
Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer Halliburton Corp (three
million dollars), which is currently the subject of government investigations
of its contract work in Iraq and alleged bribes paid in connection with
a natural gas project in Nigeria.
"(The oil industry)
is not particularly open, especially in relation to their political
doings," project director at the Center for Public Integrity, Bob
Williams, told IPS. "We wanted to take the most comprehensive look
ever taken at the global oil business and its political influence,"
he added.
"We've taken
people beyond the names they see at the gas station and showed them
how the companies really operate."
The money spent
by the industry in Washington since 1998 includes more than 67 million
dollars in campaign contributions in federal elections, about one-fifth
the amount that the companies spent on lobbying, according to the report.
The Center also
found that oil and gas companies overwhelmingly favored Republicans
over Democrats, calculating that more than 73 percent of their political
spending has gone to Republican candidates and organizations.
Total contributions
from oil and gas companies to political parties has steadily risen,
from 20.6 million dollars in 1992 to 34.2 million dollars in 2000, according
to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Campaign contributions
may be lower in the 2004 cycle as a result of recently imposed restrictions
on "soft money" contributions (from corporations, unions and
more than 1,000 dollars from an individual to a candidate in a federal
election) to political campaigns.
The ratio of contributions
from the industry to Republicans and Democrats also reveals a consistent
pattern of change, says 'The Politics of Oil'.
In 1992, 34 percent
of spending went to Democrats and 66 percent to Republicans. But in
2000 that had shifted to 20 percent of contributions to Democrats and
80 percent to Republicans.
In the incomplete
2004 cycle, Democrats have received 18 percent of contributions from
the oil and gas industry and Republicans 82 percent, added the report.
It is important
to note that in 1994 the Republicans won control of the House of Representatives
for the first time in 40 years, giving them control over key committees
having jurisdiction over the oil and gas industry.
The Center's report
charges that the National Petroleum Council (NPC), a little-known federally
chartered but privately funded group that advises the secretary of energy,
has been an "underground pipeline" of political influence
for the oil and gas industry for years.
Ten NPC members
were Bush Pioneers (a person who raises at least 100,000 dollars for
the Bush campaign) and two were Rangers (raising at least 200,000 dollars)
during the 2000 presidential election.
At the time, one
NPC member was then Halliburton Chief Executive Officer Dick Cheney,
who left the council after being chosen as the Republican vice-presidential
nominee in August 2000.
According to the
report, one of the major initiatives the NPC got the Energy Department
to consider was a wide-ranging exemption for the energy industry from
public disclosure, which has not yet been adopted. Another helped open
up federal lands for oil and gas use in the Rocky Mountains, including
Cheney's home state of Wyoming, adds the report.
"The average
citizen has concerns that are more important to them than the amount
of money spent by an oil and gas company on lobbying, but what the oil
and gas industry is doing on Capitol Hill could have a dramatic effect
on the lives of everyday citizens," said Center for Public Integrity
Communications Director Steven Weiss, in an interview.
Koch (pronounced
"coke") Industries, the largest privately held oil company
in the United States, has also financed a network of conservative non-profit
organizations. designed to influence policy debate in this country.
All of the groups -- the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, Citizens
for a Sound Economy and the Federalist Society -- advocate in Washington
for deregulation and less government, says the report.
"There are
many multi-billion-dollar corporations (like Koch) developing policies
and lobbying politicians that no one has ever heard of," according
to Williams.
Despite repeated
calls, Koch did not respond to IPS requests for an interview.
Bush has received
the most campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry of any
politician since 1998 (1.7 million dollars) says the Center's report.
Contributors included Enron, Halliburton and Koch.
That total is more
than three times the amount given to the next largest recipient of the
industry's campaign contributions.
House Energy and
Commerce Committee chairman, and fellow Texan, Joe Barton, collected
574,000 dollars. Another Texas Republican, House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay, took in just under 500,000 dollars.
Only three democrats
are on the report's top 20 list of recipients (Senator Mary Landrieu,
Sen John Breaux and House Representative Christopher John, all of Louisiana).
The two national
political parties each took in more than any individual candidate, national
Republican committees getting 24 million dollars and Democrats just
under eight million dollars.
While most of the
big oil and gas companies operate their own lobbying offices in Washington,
the industry also contracted out a substantial amount of its work to
some of the capital's largest and most influential lobbying firms, says
the report.
Topping that list
was Bracewell & Patterson, which received more than 4.8 million
dollars in lobbying work from the industry since 1998.
Among the partners
at Bracewell & Patterson is Marc Racicot, the former Montana governor
and chairman of the Bush-Cheney 2004 election campaign. Edward Krenik,
former head of congressional and intergovernmental relations at the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a lobbyist with the firm.
© Copyright
2004 IPS - Inter Press Service